


Come With Me (Nalu Week 2019)

by JustAGirlCalledMe



Category: Fairy Tail
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Canon Compliant, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Manga Spoilers, Mild Language, Nalu Week 2019, One Shot Collection, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-01
Updated: 2019-07-04
Packaged: 2020-05-15 08:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 26,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19291945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAGirlCalledMe/pseuds/JustAGirlCalledMe
Summary: UNFINISHED. Its Nalu Week 2019! Join me in celebration with full-length stories based on seven prompts, two bonus prompts, and an extra prompt about the fieriest couple in Fairy Tail! Featuring Natsu and Lucy in the canon universe and alternate universes as they encounter fluff, angst, humour, danger, and desire. Parts will be updated as per the Nalu week schedule, which can be found at https://nalu-week.tumblr.com/.





	1. On the Road

**Title** : How Long Until We Rest?  
**Prompt** : On the Road (July 1st)  
**Words** : 6656  
**Synopsis** : In the desolate apocalypse that Fiore has become, to survive you stick together. Natsu and Lucy have been travelling, fighting and surviving on the road together for so long, and now the end is finally in sight. [AU]

 

They stopped at the top of the dune to let their galloping hearts steady back to a walk. Dusty brown cloaks fashioned from torn cloth whipped around their ankles in the firm gusts that threatened to tear back the hoods, held in place only by some of her old hair clips, repurposed for the wasteland. Two sets of eyes - copper and onyx in colour - peered over the horizon from underneath hoods and above bandanas. 

Magnolia had changed drastically in the two years they’d been gone. Where once a lively hub of diversified industries stood loud and proud, a desolate city had taken its place. Sand wafted into every nook and crevice as the desert slowly swallowed Magnolia whole, drying up the air and causing the once glorious lake to shrivel and evaporate. Skyscrapers crumbling one beam at a time, and buildings long since abandoned, pillaged and abandoned again were all that remained behind to claim the city’s former significance. The pride of being a citizen of Magnolia was gone, replaced with a lasting sadness upon seeing what had become of the place. 

With a nod his way, she began the descent down the mountain of sand, and he followed. Each move was careful and slow, both of them very wary of the unstable footing where one wrong step could send them tumbling in a violent race to the finish. Blades of heat and whips of wind tortured them without reprieve. When they reached the bottom, the trek continued another mile into the ruins. 

The city was devoid of warmth, but only in the metaphorical sense. Punitive sun rays beat down on them harder and harsher with every step they took. Walking became staggering and breathing became wheezing as the severe conditions of their journey finally took their toll. The water bottles in their packs were tempting, but they both wanted to find shelter first. 

Door after door, they turned away disappointed. Some were locked, some were broken, and some were inaccessible altogether. A half an hour into their exploration of Magnolia’s bones, they finally came across an open apartment complex. Upon further inspection, the individual apartments themselves were also locked, but the lobby was clear and the second floor had been spared from most sand waves. It was no homely cabin, but it was safety. 

She stripped off her coat right away, letting it drop to the floor. Running her hands through her hair, her fingers caught in the scraggly knots that neglect had woven into the once golden locks. Grains of sand felt rough against her skin and the desire for a shower was overwhelming. When was the last time they had a chance to bathe? Three, four months ago? She doubted that a dip in the freezing cold river they took last week counted. 

Giving her neck and shoulders one last stretch, she searched for her companion and found him already cross-legged on the ground, gulping down their very limited supply of water. 

‘Natsu! Small sips!’

He whined at her as she snatched the bottle away and redid the top, ‘I’m thirsty, Lucy. We’ve been walking for hours.’

‘I know,’ Lucy sighed, sympathy showing in the tired crease of her eyes. ‘But we have to conserve the water until we can find another source.’ Hesitating, she tightened her grip on the bottle. ‘How much further now?’

Natsu tore down his bandana and pulled off his own cloak, revealing the wild, cherry blossom hair that got them in trouble wherever they went. It was hard to hide when one of you stuck out like a sore thumb. Thinking hard, he ruffled one hand around in his hair while the other found a comfortable place against his waist, and his bottom lip flopped over in the way that Lucy found endearing, though she would never admit it to him. His ego was inflated enough as it was. 

‘Outskirts of Magnolia, to the west,’ Natsu frowned. ‘I think.’

Grimacing, Lucy peeked out the nearest window whose glass had miraculously survived the demise of the city. A dust storm stirred outside. ‘We entered from the south, so we’ll need to work our way west if we wanna find them. But we should probably find some supplies first.’

A bark of laughter made her turn. Natsu leaned back until his head bumped the wall, and then he extended his legs like he was making himself comfortable. 

‘You saw the city, Lucy,’ he said. ‘There are no supplies. Everything is gone, and anything that’s left is garbage.’

Lucy scowled, unimpressed with his pessimism, ‘We found some in Hargeon.’

‘Luck,’ Natsu dismissed easily. Shutting his eyes, he settled into a position to sleep, ‘And we’re out of ours.’ 

Twirling around her bandana into a twisted strip of cloth, Lucy used one of the ends to whip her companion on the upper arm. Natsu yelped, hand jumping to his assaulted skin. As he rubbed the spot that was slowly taking on a red hue, he glared at Lucy, a stiff look forming a glaze over his pupils. 

‘What was that for?’ he demanded. 

Instead of answering, Lucy tossed her bandana into his lap, ‘I’m going to check out the second floor. It’s probably less sandy than down here. You’re free to join me whenever you like.’

And then she left. With a flip of her hair and a roll of her hips, she sauntered up the stairs, forgetting to check whether or not the structure still held. Fortunately for her pride, the stairs were still plenty strong enough to support her weight and she made it to the second floor without so much as stumbling on a step. A sigh of relief escaped her when she was sure Natsu was no longer within hearing range.

‘Idiot.’

The landing of the second floor was stable, which couldn’t be said for many of the buildings they’d previously explored. Grit coated the wooden floorboards in a thin layer. Four austere doors marked the entrances to four apartments that mirrored the layout of the floor below, only upstairs had a large glass window where the front door would’ve been. Masking tape had been plastered in a cross over the glass, holding it from being blown in by the frequent storms. 

‘Seems like someone camped out in here after shit hit the fan,’ Lucy muttered to herself, rapping her knuckles against the window. The thick glass held firm. 

Taking one of the pins from her hair, Lucy expertly fashioned it into a makeshift lockpick. One by one, she tested the doors. The first and second she tried, the lock wouldn’t give in to the hairpin. With each try, frustration welled up in the pit inside her chest. Surely if the doors were still locked, then the inside must not have been looted yet; there must be tons of supplies leftover. As the pin slipped yet again, Lucy let out a growl.

She gave up, moving on to door number three and hoping for better luck. Inserting the pin, Lucy felt it move into the lock further than her last attempt. Inside her chest, hope soared, anticipation building a steady ladder for her heart to climb up into her throat where it stuck in expectation. With a twist, the door gave, swinging open.

Lucy cheered, ‘Yes!’

Wary of traps, she peeked inside. Darkness waved its ghostly hello from the unseen corners of the main room. The restricted light from the lobby illuminated a rather cramped living space of an overly plush couch and a TV that definitely didn’t work, and touched the base of some counters and a fridge in what Lucy assumed was the kitchen. Colours were hard to make out, the limited light shading everything in hues of blacks, blues and greys.  

Lucy stepped inside, careful not to make a sound. Perhaps she was being a bit too vigilant for a building that had presumably been abandoned for about two years, but the times had taught them caution. Nimble practised footsteps left not even an echo. The living space had nothing left behind except for the furniture that was of no use to travellers. Similarly, the kitchen surfaces seemed bare. 

Traipsing closer along the line of light and darkness, Lucy fumbled around her belt for her handheld flashlight. She knew the batteries were getting dangerously low and they didn’t have any spares. Clicking the button at the base of the flashlight, she aimed the beam of luminescence around the kitchen space where the harsh artificial light declared the presence of cream coloured counters and a stainless steel sink. The fridge was white and - as Lucy quickly discovered - empty. 

Cupboard after cupboard yielded fruitless results. A spatula and a few spoons in the top draw, empty plastic containers in the pantry, some plastic plates that bore the scars of too much metal cutlery in an overhead cabinet. It was as they’d feared; the place had already been ransacked. 

Lucy’s frustration climbed side-by-side with her desperation. Flinging cupboard doors open and tossing aside useless items didn’t increase the chance of finding something of value but, by the gods, Lucy tried. And when the kitchen proved barren, she stalked the nearest door to continue the search.

Wrenching open the door, Lucy came to face herself. Her reflection, more precisely. A modest, tucked away bathroom had hung a large, dust-coated mirror directly opposite the door, above the sink. The vision the greeted Lucy was ominous and downright disturbing.

Two years of a never-ending journey had planted the roots of crazy in her eyes, and now they were starting to sprout, forcing her eyes open wide to allow the hysterical look access. Brown had thinned and paled, leaving her pupils devoid of the deep cocoa colour that had once attracted the attention of many men and women. Despair lurked behind closed lids. 

Desperate and sombre, Lucy felt around for her hair tie, feeling the dry nature of her locks as she pulled them loose. It was a weak attempt, but it was her only one. Fingers were by no means a substitute for a brush, but she pulled them through her hair and detangled knots one-by-one, watching her expression meticulously in the mirror. The crazed manner deteriorated but the gloomy clouds behind her eyes remained. It stayed that way as Lucy continued her laborious task of straightening out the long hair that had grown wily in the two years it went without attendance. 

Lucy didn’t have a watch, but her internal clock told her it had been twenty minutes by the time she deemed the unknotted state of her hair as passable. Stretching the hair tie a few times between her fingers, she bunched her hair and twirled it around and around. Eventually, she wrangled most of the strands into a ball, and yanked the hair tie over it, Lucy pulled it together in the neatest bun the apocalypse could provide. She smiled wryly. 

Turning around a bit, Lucy admired her reflection. Admittedly, she pulled off the “girl on the run from the end of the world” look without a flaw. A long-sleeved black shirt covered with a slack red tee fought off both sun and windburn on their travels. Along her left cheek, a bandaid was peeling, threatening to reveal the deep scratch a rogue fox had given her three days prior. Her eyes, though, retained that hollow, frantic countenance, the brown melting into wet puddles of flesh stained with swirls of red-

 _Slam._  

The sink rattled, coming slightly loose from the wall as Lucy continued to apply pressure. It was simple: the more she pushed her hands down, the less they were able to shake. Unfortunately, the same didn’t go for the rest of her body. As though each limb was independent of itself, Lucy’s arms and legs shook, warning her of just how frail these alarming trains of thought were making her. Lucy doubted there was any running water to splash her face with, so in lieu, she settled for slapping her cheeks a few times and marching right out of the apartment, shoving the switched off flashlight into her pocket as she went. 

Sometime during her futile escapade, Natsu had seen fit to relocate to the second-floor landing with all their gear and set up a temporary base of sorts. Natsu himself was sitting with his legs spread out in front of him and his back against the wall, one of their packs acting as a mediocre cushion as he settled in for some well-deserved rest. Laid out beneath him was his cloak, covering the sand that was scattered everywhere. 

Dressed down in a green muscle tee and jeans that didn’t begin their journey ripped, the only remnants of their old life that Natsu had held onto was the windowpane patterned scarf from his father. It lay over his chest under his folded arms in a protective cross. Against all the odds, Natsu had dragged the accessory across the country and kept in a relatively good condition. He really was something else. 

Despite herself, Lucy smiled. The situation was as hopeless as ever, but somehow, with him by her side, wandering the road didn’t seem so bad. For two years now they had protected each other, fought for one another, and survived together, being separated only once in what Lucy assuredly called the most terrifying three weeks of her life. She didn’t know what Natsu had done during that time. Although the sheer desperation and fiery enmity with which he tore through her captors gave her some indication of how he got by without her. 

‘You just gonna stand there?’

Lucy balked, shaken from her reprieve with an almost physical like force. His voice rattled through her, playing on her ribs like a set of drums and using her heart as a cymbal. The reverberations pulsated from deep inside her chest, and not for the first time, Lucy wondered how it was exactly he could move her that way.

‘No,’ she stuttered.

Still yet to open his eyes, a sideways smirk wormed its way across Natsu’s face as he waited on her, but he didn’t say anything more as she approached. Lucy dropped in between Natsu’s outstretched arms like a puppeteer had snapped her strings, making room for herself against his chest. A switch flipped and the moment she sat down, his arms came up to encircle around her stomach, light enough to allow her movement but firm enough to lock her in place - to keep her next to him. 

An enveloping warmth radiated from Natsu. It was something Lucy craved, this feeling like she’d just eaten a hot bowl of soup, and the sensation as it travelled down her throat into her stomach. She could feel the path of warmth. It was different from the arid desert where everything was hot, hot, hot. This warmth, Lucy craved like nothing else. 

Although later on, she would kick and scream about how they should’ve known better, deep down Lucy didn’t regret falling asleep in his arms. Companionship was hard to come by, and trust even harder. If letting their defences down for a few hours while they relished the time in each other’s presence was what it took to feel safe in a world where that very word was taboo, Lucy would do so with a giddy smile and a light heart. 

Even if the grip of insanity lurked just beyond the realm of her pistol, reaching out its slimy hand for her to take without realising. Each day walking a little more diagonally into the line where sanity madness crisscrossed, wandering across the border she lost the ability to tell which hand belonged to her trustworthy companion and which belonged to the darkness. It was a scary world outside and an even scarier one inside. 

How long had she been going crazy, if that’s what this was? Should she tell Natsu? If she did, would he stay with her? 

 

Dry sand crunched underfoot, loud in the face of silence. Swaddled in cloaks that flapped in the wind and bandanas high up on their faces, Lucy and Natsu assumed the appearance of drabs ghosts as they marched north-west through Magnolia. It was the middle of the afternoon when they packed up their temporary camp, and they still had a long way to go.

Natsu made a grunting sound, barely loud enough for Lucy to hear, ‘Remember that café? They served the best pies in Magnolia.’

‘I lived for their frappés,’ said Lucy. The memories of her preferred half-strength caramel frappé topped with extra whipped cream tickled her parched throat. Keening faintly, Lucy pouted behind her bandana, ‘What I wouldn’t give for one now.’

What was left of the coffee shop was a sturdy frame of a building and rotting booth seats. An old lively sign had been scratched and abused by the sandstorms, whipped so cleanly of its coats of paint that the words were illegible. Some splashes of blue and yellow remained as a reminder to what once claimed the land here. 

The café stood to collapse little-by-little in between the debris of an old tech shop and a karaoke bar Lucy used to frequent after stopping in for a coffee with her girls. Across the road, the scaffolding of an incomplete office building had somehow survived the worst nature had to throw at it, ladders, pipes, cement blocks and even a towering orange crane left to the wasteland. 

Taking her hand, Natsu steered the lamenting girl away from the café ruins. ‘Focus, Lucy,’ he said, stern but kind. ‘We got a lot of ground to cover before nightfall.’

‘Yeah.’ Downcast, Lucy allowed herself to be tugged along. ‘Hey, Natsu. You ever think about just, stopping?’ 

Irony rearing its sinister head, Natsu stopped in his tracks. The words hanging onto the edge of her lips seared her skin. Heat pooled in the pit of her belly in an uneasy and nauseating way. There was a long, extended moment where Lucy worried he wouldn’t respond, but after holding her breath, he spoke in a sharp, no-nonsense tone that she knew meant he was serious. 

‘What do you mean?’

Lucy gnawed away at her bottom lip, already regretting speaking up, ‘What if we just gave up? The only lead we have on this safe place is the ramblings of a crazy guy. We could just find somewhere to hole up, you know? Wait until … it was all over. We would have each other.’

As Lucy feared, Natsu snapped around like a whip crack. There was a marathon in her chest the way her heart was sprinting. He dropped her hand like it was made of fire, unmanageable and untouchable, and faced her with an equal fire in his eyes. Rage sparked a bonfire in the depths of his dark eyes, flickering like embers and coals alight with a core of flames. As quick as the anger at her came, it was gone, remade into anger _for_ her. 

Natsu ripped his bandana down. In his clenched fist, the red cloth appeared as fire bursting forth from his hand. His other hand came up to clamp around her shoulder in a death grip. Never before had Lucy felt so much like prey, staring down the hunter as it reached in for the final kill. 

‘So you wanna end this by dying, huh?’ Natsu’s voice scampered in pitch and ascended in volume. He gave her a shake, ‘Don’t run away!’ 

Wet, warmth dribbled down her cheek. She wondered when it was she’d started crying. ‘I’m so tired, Natsu. And scared. I don’t- I don’t think I can hold out. What if this safe place doesn’t exist? It’s all driving me,’ she hiccuped, ‘crazy. I think I am going crazy.’

Natsu scowled, ‘Then we keep going until we find a safe place. I’m not giving up on living, and I’m not letting you give either. We’ve gotten this far by sticking together, Lucy! We’ve come this far, and we can go further.’ The anger in his eyes and the bite in his voice dimmed, ‘Please don’t give up, Lucy. You’re the only reason I haven’t.’

Lucy ran her tongue over lips as dry as the desert and as cracked as the buildings around them, ‘What?’

Still holding onto her shoulders, Natsu’s head dipped, ‘Seeing you every day, and knowing that we were gonna get through this together - that’s the reason I haven’t given up yet. I-I understand; I do.’ 

Bottom lip trembling, Lucy held her breath in a desperate attempt to hold back the tears that were congesting her sinuses and accumulating as a thrashing headache. 

Natsu gestured to their immediate surroundings with the hand clenched around his bandana, ‘Everything’s gone to shit. We don’t know if we’ll find shelter before night. But, please, Lucy,’ with his eyes imploring, he got under her skin and rested there, ‘don’t give up on me. Make me your reason for living, like you’re mine. We can only do this together, Lucy.’

The tears streaming down her cheeks left tracks in the dirt inlaid there, marking out her weak-mindedness for all to see. But there was no all. There was only Natsu. In this twisted world that they strived to exist in, they only had each other to trust and rely on. That’s how it had been for two years now. Was she a fool to miss it? Or was she merely pulling Natsu along for the ride she was stuck on?

‘I-I don’t-’ 

‘Let me be your reason,’ Natsu whispered, hand inching up from her shoulder to cradle her cheek. ‘Lucy-’

 _Clang, clang, clang. Crack. Creeeaaak._  

Natsu stiffened, ‘What was that?’

The noise barely gave them a second of warning before the construction site across from the café came toppling down around them. Metal and concrete and brick rained from above. The weighty _thunks_ sending alarming chills down Lucy’s spine as it dawned that if one should hit her, it would make a lot more of a _squelch_ kind of sound as her body popped like a balloon. That was about the only thought Lucy was able to process before a raucous shout of ‘Watch out!’ accompanied by the force of being shoved to the ground hit her harder than a cement block could. 

Cold blood pumped through her veins, spurred on by a heart that beat slower, slower, slower, matching the speed of time that thickened and sluggishly moved on. Crashes that should’ve burst her eardrums sounded distant and hollow. The debris clattered around them, showering sand and dust in Lucy’s face and over her cloak. Shutting her eyes did little to alleviate the minuscule bullets of sand grains that pelted and pummeled every patch of exposed skin. 

Finally, it was over. Lucy unfurled herself from the ball she didn’t remember curling into. Removing her arms from their protective position over her head, she brushed the powder from her eyes and nose and listlessly blinked the scene into her awareness. She hadn’t felt so cold in the desert before. The blood in her veins was becoming heavy as it froze into ice, causing Lucy to shiver as sludge drifted about her body with a useless heart. She swore it wasn’t beating. 

‘Natsu?’ Lucy’s voice snapped in the middle, and she tried again. ‘Natsu?’ 

Standing on quivering legs, she took in the spectacle laid out in pandemonium before her. 

The bright orange crane has miraculously survived yet another disaster, hovering over the infrastructure of a building that had come tumbling down. Grumbles of badly positioned rubble bounced off the surrounding walls. Lucy looked down. Around her in a shape unidentifiable were remnants of construction and half-built blocks, each undoubtedly weighing more than double her own weight. Majority of the beams and heavy framework had landed where she was previously standing. Where she and Natsu were previously standing … 

Lucy called out louder, ‘Natsu? Where are you?’

‘Ngh … yo, Lucy. Under here.’

Head snapping, eyes darting, breath catching. The coughing fit that followed helped Lucy navigate the wreckage to a large, slender concrete slab with two jean-clad legs and an arm sticking out. A heated rush of relief flooded through Lucy’s systems. Stiff muscles unclenched themselves as warm blood quickened its pace to stir around the adrenalin that fired to life. 

‘Natsu, oh, holy shit,’ Lucy blubbered, dropping to her knees and almost tripping on her cloak. ‘Okay, okay. Fuck, fuck. Wh-wh-what do I do?’

From the top of the slab, a tousle of pink hair stuck out, giving the disembodied voice a body, ‘How about start by moving this shit? I can’t breathe.’

Panic and logic fought a losing battle in Lucy’s mind, but her smarts reigned long enough for her to pant out a quick, ‘Oh, yeah, right,’ and hurry into action. The slab was broad but not hefty, and the thinness made it simple work for Lucy to wrap her fingers around the edge and heave, flipping it up and off Natsu in one smooth motion. Breathing hard as she was, Lucy still found it in herself to look down and grin in triumph. 

And nearly puked on the poor boy.

Untold damage had been done by the concrete. Several ribs were probably busted and Natsu’s knee was definitely twisted the wrong way. However, the real issue was not the result of the slab itself, but from the five-foot-long and two-inch in diameter metal support beam jammed in his right shoulder. 

‘Na-yah,’ she trailed off as a swell of bile tainted the base of her throat and she slapped a hand over her mouth.

Natsu grimaced, ‘Oh yeah, and there’s that.’

It was painfully obvious how strong he was trying to be for her. Veins thrummed along his forehead and neck, standing out in an intense display of stress and discipline. The force it took to keep down his cries and groans of agony brightened his face in shades of scarlet and glistened with beads of sweat that evaporated in the desert heat. But none of that compared to the fierce red weeping from the space between the beam and his skin. 

‘Fuck, Natsu,’ Lucy breathed out. ‘Bandages aren’t gonna fix this one.’

‘I know.’ Through gritted teeth, he managed to rasp, ‘We’re gonna have to think this one through, huh? Before we pull it out.’

‘Pull it-’

Lucy gagged again. She hadn’t quite got past the whole “there’s a pole in his arm” and hadn’t got to “I have to pull a pole out from his arm” yet. Slamming her lips into a thin line, she concentrated on keeping the limited food she’d had in her stomach where it belonged. 

A stern look crossed Natsu’s eyes, ‘Lucy, concentrate. We need something to stop the blood flow. If we just pull it out, I’m gonna bleed to death.’

‘I know, I know.’ Her words were drowning in swallowed tears. ‘I’m just _so_ scared, Natsu. How-how are you not terrified?’ 

His smile could’ve rivalled a million suns and Lucy still wouldn’t be satisfied, always wanting more of the wicked warmth and light he radiated. ‘Because you’re with me.’ 

‘Over there!’

Locking eyes, Lucy felt cold realisation pass between them. Her breath stopped coming out in puffs as though the very act of not breathing would allow them to go undetected. How stupid were they to believe that the sudden collapse of the construction site was an accident? They were under attack. 

‘Wait here,’ Lucy hissed.

She didn’t let the ignorant statement linger in her thoughts to conflict with her racing state of mind. (Where could he possibly go?) Leaving Natsu to battle the pain alone, Lucy hurried over to the backpack she’d dropped, hunching over to make herself as small as possible so she was both harder to see and harder to hit. The backpack was where she left and she made quick work of plunging her hand inside to rummage around for the item she wanted. A click behind her said that her efforts to go unseen had been for naught. 

‘Where’s your friend, girlie?’ a throaty voice asked, grisly humour chasing circles around his words. ‘Where’d your boy go?’

Lucy’s answer came as a spin on her heel and the click of her own pistol. Instantly the muzzle was shoved in the face of a dark-skinned, dark natured man who snapped his teeth as if insinuating he would eat any bullet she fired his way. His hair was pulled to both sides in poofy bunches. In one hand he was positioned a little too trigger happy over a sawed-off shotgun, and in the other, he lightly held the grip of a large kanabō. The latter seemed more equipped for intimidation than practicality. 

He tutted her like a child being scolded for playing with a knife, ‘That ain’t friendly. How ‘bout you put that down and have a little chat, hey?’

‘Does that chat involve the death and or maiming of me or my partner?’

‘Well, that depends on whether you hand over your stuff without a fight.’

Lucy narrowed her eyes, ‘You’re disgusting.’

The bandit spread the arm holding the kanabō as if gesturing to an extravagant show, ‘That’s the lot of the draw, girlie. It’s the end of the world out here, so you gotta kill or you’ll be killed.’

‘So out of the wolf and the sheep, you chose to be the wolf.’

‘The wolf eats. The sheep are fed.’

 _Keep talking, keep talking, keep talking_. Why? She wasn’t sure what good it would do. Increase Natsu’s chance at a getaway? No, Natsu wasn’t going anywhere pinned to the ground like that. She had to get them out of this somehow, somehow, somehow. 

Leaning in, a shit-eating sneer appeared on the bandit's face, ‘You’re surrounded. Keep me blabbing all you want. Right now, ten more of me are searching for you and your boy, and we ain’t leaving without your goodies.’ 

Alarm bells screamed. A shrill voice in the back of her head screamed to run back to Natsu. He was defenceless, fixed to the ground by an enormous support beam and bleeding out even as they danced in a back and forth of linguistics. She had to end this. She had to protect him. 

Lucy ground her teeth to hide the shaking of her jaw, ‘I don’t believe it.’

‘Thibault!’

A second bandit stumbled out from around a pile of debris, tripping over a block in his haste and falling flat on his face. Lucy was still too terrified to laugh. After a careless recovery, he tottered over to where Lucy was being held at gunpoint. His frame was small and lean, but he carried practically no muscle. The indicated Thibault paid the short bandit no mind, training his sick grin on Lucy’s troubled gaze as he waved the sawed-off in circles around her face, leering in the face of her frightened discomfort. 

‘What is it?’

‘Thibault,’ the bandit huffed, bent double at the waist. ‘Four men have been taken out.’

‘What?’ 

Finally, Lucy was free from his attention. Thibault lowered the shotgun, turning on his accomplice with a demonic glower. 

The bandit cowered, ‘S-sir, someone has taken out four men. It’s not her travel companion - we found him passed out not far from here.’

Lucy’s heart skipped a beat. Passed out? Shit. Natsu needed medical attention, and fast. She needed to finish things up with these bandits. She had to get back to him. If he died - 

‘Meddling fucks!’ Thibault bellowed. He moved away from Lucy who begun to inch backwards. ‘This is my territory, you hear? Go back to your fucking meadows, pieces of shit. Get out of-’

 _Thunk, thunk_. 

Choking cut him off. Lucy watched in morbid fascination as the man dropped back on one leg in an attempt to stabilize himself, before all strength drained away from his limbs and he fell onto his back, shaking up the sand that settled on his corpse in a thin sheet. Two crudely crafted arrows jutted out, one striking the middle of his torso and the other stuck dead centre in his throat. Blood spluttered as air gushed from a windpipe never to be used again. 

The other bandit squealed, voice leaping octaves in a single bound. As quick as he’d come, he fled, but he didn’t make it far. Two more _thunk, thunk’s_ resounded as he was impaled in the back and went toppling to the ground without so much as a high pitched scream. 

Lucy didn’t dare move. To be caught in a turf war of two opposing bandit camps did not bode well for her and Natsu’s wellbeing. An entire minute, counted in shallow breaths, she waited to be approached by the remorseless archers, and her grip around the pistol tightened. 

There! 

From atop a mound of rock and rubble, two cloaked figures appeared. Bows fashioned from the same wood as the primitive arrows were held with poise in each other their hands, strings pulled back and at the ready. Averse to the makeshift, murky brown cloaks that Lucy and Natsu donned, these two figures had an air of dignity and grace around the inky black material that was cleaner and more refined around the edges. 

Determination let another round of adrenalin loose through her veins. Planting her right foot back, Lucy maintained a sturdy stance as she aimed her pistol at the figure on the right who was smaller but somehow more intimidating. Straight backed and with a self-assured posture, Lucy designated the figure the leader. 

This time she was ready. This time _she_ would steer the encounter. This time she would protect Natsu. _Let me be your reason_ , he had said. What a silly thing to say. With a low laugh, she realised he had always been her reason - her reason and her grounding force. Madness would never have her, so long as he was there. And he always was. It spurred on the fire in her blood and her mission to protect, protect, protect. 

At Lucy’s clear display of aggression, the two figures didn’t fire, but they didn’t lower their bows. 

‘Are there more of you?’ Lucy called, sounding braver than she felt. 

The taller figure glanced at his companion before replying, ‘There are six more of us.’

Inside her mind, her thoughts chased each other at a mile a minute. Eight altogether. With a single pistol and limited ammo, Lucy didn’t stand a chance against such a large enemy. Communication seemed the only viable option, and thankfully she considered herself a master wordsmith, so long as these people were open to a non-lethal conversation. 

Raising the pistol and her voice, ‘We don’t want any trouble. If you just let us go, you’ll never have to see us again. Let us walk away and both sides don’t have to suffer any losses.’

At the same time, as if on command, both figures lowered their bows, and Lucy cheered internally at the progress. She lessened her own hold on her gun. 

‘We’re just passing by and didn’t mean to get involved in any beef. We don’t have anything you can take, and my partner h-he,’ Lucy fumbled, ‘needs my help. So please, if you just let me go-’

‘Lucy!’

Whipping her head around, the pistol fell limp from Lucy’s numb fingers, ‘Natsu!’ 

Foolish it may have been to turn her back on armed, cloaked figures, all sense was thrown out the window as relief and euphoria took her under like a tidal wave. Natsu was just barely on his feet, shirtless and speckled with sand. His left arm was thrown around a man dressed in a cloak identical to Lucy’s two adversaries, but the hood was pushed back to reveal a dishevelled mane of pitch-black hair, dull silver piercing lining the contour of his face. The grouchy scowl on his face gave him the likeness of a grizzly bear. 

‘Natsu, what happened?’ Lucy demanded breathlessly. Her eyes drifted to his injury, gaze running over the thick white gauze that wrapped around a good part of his upper torso and his shoulder. It was stained red with blood but was clean and secure. ‘Who did that?’

‘Wendy, our field medic,’ said a voice from behind.

Soundlessly, the two figures had approached. Their bows slipped over their chests and their hoods tipped back, allowing Lucy to put a face to the voices. The man who had first called out to her was rocking the classic style of tall, dark and handsome, cool navy eyes piercing her soul like spears. The figure Lucy had deemed as the leader was a tough-looking woman with striking scarlet hair pulled up in a high ponytail. Both wore comfortable smiles, despite Lucy’s earlier violent outburst. 

‘Wendy?’ Lucy questioned. 

Grizzly Bear stuck his thumb back in the direction they’d come from, ‘She’s waiting with the others. Which reminds me, Erza, Juvia wanted me to remind you that it was supposed to be her turn to pair up with Gray.’

An exaggerated shiver ran down the cool man’s spine, and he looked behind him like he was the prey and there was a hunter lurking in the shadows, ‘Wh-why are you running her errands now?’

Grizzly Bear grinned, ‘Geehee. Because I get a kick outta that reaction.’

‘Noted,’ the woman said. ‘But we have other immediate matters to attend to.’

The conversation barely reached Lucy’s consciousness. Tender and tentative, she touched Natsu’s face, feeling the scrapes and cuts he’d taken to push her out of harms vicinity. He was here, and he was safe, and he was okay. 

‘You’re okay,’ she whispered. 

He nodded, ‘Yeah, that kid they got fixed me right up. She had me patched up before I even came to. I’m sorry I worried you.’ 

Hot tears spiked the corners of her eyes. It was too much. She was tired - so tired - of crying, and also tired in general. Heat beating, heart slowing, knees quaking; the immense pressure of a long, mentally and physically tiring day was taking its toll. All in one go, the adrenalin zipped out of her system and Lucy dropped like a sack of potatoes. 

‘Whoa!’ Natsu cried. His sluggish limbs barely moved to catch her in time, jolting his wound in the process which he hid with a silent wince. 

Grizzly Bear maneuvered to support both of them, struggling under their combined weight ‘Gray, come grab her!’

The tears ran down Lucy’s cheeks, retracing a frequented route. Worry, fear, madness, apathy, guilt, anger, terror; all the emotions of a single day sucker-punched her in the face, leaving her dizzy and weak. As Lucy cried, Natsu shushed her, rocking her in his arms as best he could. The man Grizzly Bear had called Gray stepped back, allowing them space. 

‘You’ve been through a lot,’ guessed the woman. Lucy turned from the safety of a warm embrace to face her. ‘I’m truly sorry for that. My name is Erza.’

‘I’m Natsu,’ Natsu said. ‘And this is Lucy.’

‘Nice to meet you. How long have you been here?’

‘Arrived in the city this morning. We’re looking for a safe place that an old guy told us was west of Magnolia.’

Gray and Grizzly Bear exchanged knowing looks over their heads. Readjusting her bowstring, Erza chuckled lightly into her palm. 

‘Luck has smiled upon you,’ she declared. ‘We come from a camp just where you describe. We are a group of about one hundred, from small children to some elderly. Perhaps it was us he referred to.’ 

‘Seriously? You have no idea how long we’ve been on the road for,’ Lucy said, exchanging a look with Natsu who grinned back, exhausted but thrilled. ‘We’ve travelled so far.’ 

Erza smiled, and for the first time in two years, Lucy and Natsu felt the genuine waves of someone compassionate wash over them. ‘Well, no more. There’s more than enough of everything to go around at camp. Welcome to Fairy Tail.’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The whole madness thing was added a bit last minute, which is why it might seem kinda strange, but I think it works alright. Thibault is the leader of Team Twilight Ogre, for those who wondered. Also, anyone catch on that Natsu claims they're out of luck in the very beginning, only for Erza to say that luck has smiled on them at the very end? Not intentional, but pretend it was. It makes me feel good about myself. This is only the first prompt, so please stick around for more, and let me know if you enjoyed it!


	2. Stranger

**Title** : Like You and Me  
**Prompt** : Stranger (July 2nd)  
**Words** : 6745  
**Synopsis** : When a stranger comes to Fairy Tail begging for their help, the gang is eager to help. But some delicate circumstances put Natsu and Lucy in a position where they are unable to deny their feelings any longer. [CU] 

 

It just _had_ to be raining. The world must despise Lucy for all misdeeds and occasional narcissism. Or maybe even some greater power was jealous of how cute she was! That was the only possible explanation as to why it had been raining without a hint of sunshine for sixteen days in a row now. 

Rain slapped at the rooftop. Condensation slicked the faces and shoulders of everyone who had made the gruelling journey to the guild as the heat of the summer storm maintained an all-time high. The mass of bodies from so many bored guildmates clumped together inside only made matters louder and sweatier. Groaning, the stellar mage fell forward until her forehead bumped the bar and attracted the attention of both her partner and the barmaid. 

‘Chin up, Lucy,’ Mirajane directed with a sunny smile that diverged from the storm outside. 

Lucy stared down the bar, thoughts as dull and wooden as its surface, ‘We can’t go out because of the storm, and no one has been by to deliver new requests so we can’t even escape on one of those.’ She pouted, ‘And I’ve been wanting to wear my cute, new boots, too.’

Sidling over, Mirajane delivered a fresh plate of spicy chicken wings to Natsu who was wisely keeping his mouth shut about Lucy’s dilemma - for once. The dragon slayer scoffed them down without a word or grace. Only once he’d finished devouring his first wing did he shoot a cheeky thumbs up the barmaid’s way. Lucy turned up her nose at his boorish ways, despite being used to them, and turned her head from the cocoon of her arms to peek around at the guildhall. With a lull in service and a friend in need, Mirajane crossed her arms beneath her chest and leaned against the bar. 

‘It’s sure to clear up soon,’ she assured. ‘I don’t remember a storm ever going on this long before, so it can’t be much longer before it clears up.’

‘I hope you’re right,’ Lucy mumbled into the crook of her arm. 

A crack of thunder disguised the usually distinguishable sound of the door creaking open, so much so that, at first, neither Lucy, Mirajane or Natsu knew that someone had entered. The darting claps of the thunderstorm droned in the guild members’ ears. Chatter did gradually begin to dilate, conversations stuttering to a halt to watch the raggedy cloaked figure stagger down the centre of the guild. 

Natsu’s dragon hearing picked out her footsteps first, feet away from the bar. He turned, and Lucy and Mirajane looked up with his movement to see just what had snatched up his attention. 

A frazzled looking woman with tears welling from eyes the shade of the earth itself stared back. She was quite short and had a young, beautiful face but it was swollen and red from crying. Golden wheat hair was plastered to her neck and the sides of her face, dripping water down her cloak and onto the guild floor where it began to pool around her boots. 

‘Oh my,’ Mirajane gasped, running to skirt around the bar.

Leaping off her stool, Lucy made it to the woman just as she sunk to her knees, a convulsion of sobs overtaking her slight frame. Water spilled onto the floorboards and the streets. Mindless soothing murmurs flooded from Lucy’s lips, one hand rubbing repetitive circles over the woman’s back and the other clutched her hands that were wet and cold. 

‘What’s going on?’ Natsu demanded with his notoriously thin patience and slow uptake. 

Lucy shot him a dirty look, ‘Shush.’

‘You,’ the woman’s throat was as water clogged as the canal. ‘You’re Fairy Tail, yes?’

Exchanged a look with her partner over her shoulder, the stellar mage nodded, ‘Yeah, this is Fairy Tail.’

The woman grabbed handfuls of her cloak, squeezing the material through her fingers, ‘Then, please, help me! Help my Phil!’ 

Melting into Lucy’s waiting arms and burying her hands within the depths of her cloak, the woman eventually extracted a dazzling silver ring. She held it with familiarity, light upon her fingertips. At the same time, Mirajane hustled to their side, equipped with a fluffy red towel and calling out to her little sister to prepare a hot drink. 

The woman looked up, glittery green eyes tugging on Lucy’s heartstrings, one by one, ‘My name’s Rachel. We were coming to Magnolia because w-we wanted to get married at Kardia Cathedral. But people came from the trees, and they took Phil!’ Holding the beautiful ring aloft, she pleads, ‘I-I don’t have any money, but you can have this; it’s a real diamond. Please, I have no one I can turn to!’ 

‘Oh, honey,’ Mirajane mumbled, dabbing the towel against Rachel’s face. ‘We take rewards for missions, not cries for help. Of course, we’ll help you, right, Lucy?’

Lucy smiled, bright as her hair and sunny as a summer's day, ‘Absolutely.’

‘Th-thank you!’ Rachel’s bottom lip trembled, then steadied, then trembled again. ‘Thank you!’ 

Squatting down on his hunches, Natsu dropped into the conversation the same way he did everything life; with few questions, fewer answers and no apologies. The unfamiliar and uninitiated would mistake the heated look that sparked in the coal of his eyes for the serious and sincere disposition of a combat veteran. The members of Fairy Tail knew better. Inside his chest, a flame was kindling, and the flare in his eyes was it manifesting as an itch for a fight. 

‘Who took ‘im?’ he pestered. ‘Where’d he go missing?’ 

Rachel blinked in the looming face of the dragon slayer who had yet to fully grasp the concepts of boundaries and personal space. Lucy’s heart reached out to her in a different way. It had been a _challenge_ (to put it mildly) to become accustomed to the lurking over her shoulder, the lack of common sense, the presence in her apartment. And if one wasn’t enough, he’d raised Happy to be an exceed replica. 

‘Natsu,’ Lucy reprimanded. A placating hand found its place on his shoulder, the other continuing its motion around Rachel’s back. ‘Be gentle. She’s probably in shock.’

On cue, Lisanna dropped on Rachel’s other side, offering a mug of masterfully made hot cocoa - Lucy could vouch for their magic. Balancing a blue and white plaid blanket on one knee, Lisanna waited as the woman took a long, warm sip before unfurling the blanket and draping it over Rachel’s shoulders. 

Natsu crossed his arms, balancing on the balls of his feet, ‘I’m just saying. We need to know if we’re gonna help.’

‘N-no,’ Rachel stuttered. With the heel of her palm, she discarded her tears - something about the dragon slayer’s blasé attitude had apparently sobered her up. ‘He’s right. Phil won’t be crying, so I shouldn’t either. We’re a team, after all.’

Warmth sputtered to life in Lucy’s chest, and she couldn’t help the sappy smile sent Natsu’s way that wormed its way up her pipe of constricting emotions. He only grinned back. Partnership and teamwork: a hardwired finesse pressed into all Fairy Tail members by not only each other and the Master, but by circumstances beyond their control that continuously placed their team in situations that tested the strength and solidarity of those friendships. 

Rachel hardened her gaze. With Lisanna’s assistance, the young woman pushed to her feet looking much better than her introduction now that she was somewhat dry and well reassured. 

‘I’ll take you to where Phil was kidnapped.’

 

For how exhausted Rachel was when she trudged into Fairy Tail, the scene of the crime was only a half-hour march from Magnolia. Kudos to the woman; she must have run for help when Phil was taken. 

At Mirajane’s request, setting out had been delayed an extra hour while she and Lisanna scrutinised Rachel for injuries from head to toe, pressed at least another two cocoas into the woman’s hands, and made her take a shower while they washed her clothes. To say Rachel was grateful was an understatement; Lucy and Lisanna waited for her in the girls' locker room, sobs echoing loud and clear against the tiles. The setback did allow them to assemble a small rescue party.

So an hour and a half later, Natsu, Rachel and Lucy stood upon a precipice, looking down at a road heavily travelled in the clearing below. Wendy, Gray and Juvia waited at the bottom of the cliff with Happy and Carla. 

‘Thank you so much for helping me,’ Rachel gushed for the umpteenth time. The rain this far out of Magnolia was lighter, but her hair was already stuck to her skin. 

Lucy shook her head, extracting one hand from her raincoat pockets to rub her shoulder, ‘Don’t mention it. We’re here to help!’

As though he weren’t listening to their conversation (which he probably wasn’t), Natsu continued scanning the treetops. He’d alternated between sniffing the air and narrowing in his dragon sight on things only he could see, and now he stepped back from the edge and planted his hands on his hips, grinning like he was some master tracker and not a total dumbass (Lucy’s own opinion). 

‘It’s the perfect ambush spot,’ he declared as if that solved everything.

Rachel nodded, ‘They shot arrows at me from up here - I’m sure of it. It separated us. And then men jumped down from trees and grabbed Phil.’

Migrating from Rachel’s side to Natsu’s, the stellar mage lingered there a moment, ‘You think you can track them in this rain?’

‘Rain makes it harder, but Wendy should be able to help. It’s still recent enough that their scents are lingering, but they’ll get washed away if we don’t move quick.’

‘Then let's move.’

The climb down was silent and uneventful. Lucy held Rachel’s hand descending, lending each other support around the muddy patches of soil that squelched and they identified as slipping hazards. Rain pummeled them from side-on. Each drop was a frigid bullet, intensity striking any skin exposed to the elements. Lucy shrugged her raincoat on a little tighter. 

Gray was examining a few trees that sat up against the trail, coarse fingertips running over the bark. At least two arrows were stuck fast. Litterings of more arrows at the base of the trees and indentations in the wood suggested that there were more but they had come loose in the weather. He looked up when they reached the foot of the cliff. 

With Wendy and Natsu at the head of the pack, tracking the scent of Phil’s kidnappers, Rachel Lucy taking up the centre, and Juvia and Gray lagging behind, they started off down the trail. Happy and Carla soared overhead, scouting the way. The road they passed along was a route frequented by merchants and traders, with wheel tracks as deep as their ankles and waterlogged. Footprints were quickly fading in the mud, leaving it to the dragon slayers to trace the kidnappers. 

‘Juvia,’ Natsu grumbled after barely a minute. ‘Can’t you do something about this rain?’

Lucy didn’t look back, keeping her eye on Natsu and Wendy lest she lose them in the hazy air, but the remorse was easily detectable, dripping off the water woman’s lips. 

‘Juvia has tried, sorry. Natural weather does not like being messed with.’

An over-exaggerated exhale had Lucy’s eyes narrowing, a lecture accompanying a cluck of her tongue, but Gray beat her to the punch.

‘Don’t have a go at Juvia,’ he all but growled. ‘She didn’t cause the rain.’

Smile tugging her lips, Lucy was glad Natsu had enough sense knocking around his two brain cells to leave it there. Then again, she didn’t put it past him to have a go at Juvia just to provoke Gray. It wouldn’t be the first time. He and Happy had spent a lengthy amount of time lamenting to her about Gray’s inability to give the poor woman a yes or no. Natsu’s integrity surprised her still to this day. 

With an awkward silence threatening to loom, Lucy turned to their companion to strike up a new conversation, ‘So, how did you meet Phil?’ 

Rachel smiled fondly, and the authenticity of the waves of love she emitted was quickly manifesting as an odd longing in Lucy’s chest. Around her ring finger, Rachel twisted the stunning silver ring. 

‘I was in Crocus on a research project - I’m an academic, you see.’ Her eyes glossed over in reminiscence. ‘I was studying the effects of exercise on brain capacity.’

Ahead, Natsu made a gagging sound which Wendy immediately reprimanded him for. Rolling her eyes, Lucy motioned for Rachel to continue, even glancing back to see Gray and Juvia engaged in the memory. The rain made it hard to hear, but Rachel raised her voice when she saw that the group was teetering on her words. 

‘We’d partnered with a dance studio for the study. It’s the weirdest thing; Phil was a hip-hop teacher and one of our test participants. Something just sparked, you know? One look and I was sure that whatever came next, we were gonna do it together.’ 

‘That’s beautiful, Rachel,’ Juvia said from behind. 

Lucy gushed, ‘That’s so sweet! How did it work out? I mean, obviously, you guys are getting _married_. But, gosh, a scientist and a dance teacher.’

‘Yeah, that’s what was so weird to us,’ Rachel agreed with a chuckle. ‘Our friends loved to joke about it, and we did too. We’re as different as night and day, but somehow we make it work. Phil is … kinda impulsive and stubborn, and has _such_ a foul mouth. But then again, I’m just as stubborn, so-’ She trailed off with a shrug. 

 _Impulsive and stubborn,_  Lucy thought to herself amusedly. _That reminds me of someone._  

Natsu was many things - brash, boorish and boisterous just to name a few. But he was also fiercely loyal and protective of his loved ones, something for which the stellar mage felt fortunate to be counted as. He’d been called many things over time, and yet to Fairy Tail, he had only ever been Natsu. 

The thought ran headlong into a brick wall, even as the group continued on. Frowning, Lucy wondered just where that particular train of thought had been headed and to what conclusion it would reach if she pursued it. 

Natsu stopped her thoughts once more by halting their march, turning back to them with the familiar, dangerous glint in his eyes that meant a fight was imminent. 

‘Trail’s getting cold but I think they’re close,’ he explained, unable to keep the excitement from hanging onto the edge of his words. 

Wendy nodded in support, ‘I can hear voices ahead, but the rain is too loud to tell how many.’ 

Severe ambience hit them as hard as the rain. It still ripped at their skin and clothes on an angle, the recent wind adding a horrible chill factor that had no place in the middle of summer. The rain had become a constant drone in Lucy’s ears over the past two and a half weeks, so much so that when she lay down it was becoming difficult to tell what was the downpour and what was the blood rushing through her head. Even now, Lucy wasn’t sure if she was hearing rain of her own adrenalin. 

Gray tapped her elbow, startling Lucy to find him and Juvia so close, ‘Everyone keep alert. We know they have archers and probably a mastermind.’

Natsu thumped his fists together, and in the gloom of the downpour a bright striking of orange exploded to life, ‘I’m all fired up now!’ 

The clearing collided into the path without warning. One moment they were creeping down the trail in a tight-knit group and the next the trees gave way to an expanse a third of the size of the guildhall. In the centre, surrounded by empty space, a small cottage claimed the area for its own. 

It was an L-shaped building, slightly raised, with steps leading up to a spacious wooden terrace and a chimney puffing smoke that faded into the darkness of the cloudy day. A lone rocking chair was being pushed around in the strong wind. The front door was ornately carved from a dark wood that was echoed in the window frames, complementing the dark green of the curtains inside. 

Overall, it radiated a strong “tranquil honeymoon retreat”, not “kidnappers den”. The one thing that set all kinds of alarm bells ringing were hastily put up wooden boards that were nailed to the outside of the windows of the leftmost room. 

Lucy frowned, unnerved, ‘They didn’t go far, did they.’

‘Perhaps they didn’t expect pursuit?’ Juvia suggested. ‘Rachel alone could not have taken on Phil’s kidnappers, but they did not expect Fairy Tail.’

Natsu didn’t say anything, which was strange for the battle-hungry dragon slayer. Out of the corner of her eye, Lucy watched him sniff the air experimentally and scowl as if he didn’t like what he smelled. The fire in him dimmed to something controlled and suspicious. 

‘I think some of us should keep watch outside the house while the rest goes in to find Phil,’ Lucy proposed, not shifting her gaze. Her voice snagged Natsu’s attention and in his eyes, she saw her own worry reflected. He nodded. ‘Something about this isn’t right.’

‘Juvia is best outside where the rain is,’ Juvia said. 

Wendy nodded, ‘And I should be able to smell if anyone is coming.’

Gray motioned for their groups to part, and they did so naturally, ‘You two go with Rachel and find Phil. We’ll make sure no one follows you in.’

Smiling the stellar mage stepped towards the house, and the others followed her, ‘Thanks, you guys.’

As Gray, Juvia, Wendy and the exceeds set up at the base of the steps, Natsu, Lucy and Rachel headed into the cottage. To their surprise, the door wasn’t locked - a bad sign. Rain and blood buzzed in Lucy’s ears. She couldn’t help but feel that whatever she was walking into, it would change everything. 

 

Inside the cottage had the exact same feel as the exterior; homely, quaint and not a creepy murder house (Lucy had to remind herself the Phil had only been kidnapped). A small chandelier lit with real candles glittered like an assemblage of jewels, hanging high from the pitched roof. 

Directly opposite the entrance, a fully stocked kitchenette was the most simple thing in the room. The rest of the comfortable room was taken up by the living space - a plush, dusty brown loveseat and a low glass coffee table set before a stone fireplace that appeared ancient. A happy flame crackled in the hearth. In the far right-hand corner, a round table for two was ready to be set. A short hallway extended to the left with two doorways leading to what Lucy presumed would be the bathroom and bedroom. 

It was peaceful. It was cozy. It was ominous. 

 _Bang_. 

A loud sound from the bedroom followed by a heartfelt curse. The voice perked Rachel up, her lips parting in a soft ‘o’ but not able to form words. She crossed the room in a daze. 

Natsu watched from the entrance, gaze flitting from the rug to the window to the stove to the back door. Vigilance brightened his eyes. It was only that and the unyielding faith she had in her partner that allowed Lucy to turn her back on the space and focus her attention on the noises in the next room. The girls tried the door with no luck - it was bolted shut. 

Rachel banged her palm against the door, ‘Phil? Phil, are you in there?’

‘Rachel?’ The voice that answered was shrill and sturdy, reminding Lucy of a tree in a storm that refuses to fall. Footsteps sounded as Phil moved closer to the door. ‘Oh, thank god you’re here. Listen, it’s my dad! He planned this whole thing, from the moment we left.’

Kidnapping by a father? The stellar mage winced as a pang of twisted pain and regret squeezed like a wound rope around her heart. Across the room, Natsu’s gaze snapped to her instantly. 

Memories thrummed with her blood; waiting in fear, waiting in guilt, waiting in torment, but knowing she would not go back to that house; she would not go back to her father. Finally, she would be just Lucy. In time and humbling circumstances, he learnt as much. And then … seven years passing, and words unspoken would choke her for a lifetime. 

She didn’t realise when Natsu had moved by her side, but the warm and grounding grip on her shoulder told her that he had. That’s right, he was there then, too. He always had been there. Lucy smiled, and although it was a little sad, it was honest, and Natsu smiled back. 

Rachel sighed, but in her semi-hysterical state, it was more like a release of breath and pent up fright. Laying her head against the door, she closed her eyes. Lucy got the feeling that on the other side of the door, Phil was doing the same. For a moment, the pair lingered in the strained silence.

‘We should’ve known,’ Rachel sobbed. ‘Couldn’t he leave us alone?’

Quiet was welcome but suspicious. Glancing around the cabin, Lucy noted the lack of personal items or any kind of a homely mess. The place was barren, save for the furniture, a potted plant in one corner, and an ornamental painting over the fireplace of some mountain that probably wasn’t even in Fiore. She ran her hand over the coffee table and brushed a thin layer of dust from her fingertips.  

‘Natsu,’ she murmured. She didn’t catch his gaze, but Lucy knew she had his attention. ‘This doesn’t feel right.’

The dragon slayer took a long whiff of the air, ‘The scents here are faint. Even in the rain, there should be something more. This is a rental.’ 

‘What does that mean?’

‘Not sure. But I don’t like it.’

Rubbing her face, Lucy tried to think, ‘We need to get Phil out of there first and foremost. Cancer should be able to-’

A scream penetrated the air, and the familiarity of it struck Lucy like a spear of ice.

‘Juvia!’

Little thought was attributed to behind them as Lucy and Natsu smacked open the front door to a disturbing scene. In Gray’s arms, Juvia was slumped over one side, grasping the area around her leg where a single arrow poked out of her flesh. Her skin was pale, pain clenching the veins around her throat. The panic was real, but with Wendy already falling to her knees by Juvia’s side with her healing magic tinting her hands a blue-green, it was already fading. 

Gray’s head snapped up, ‘Came from the trees. By the time I realised, I was too far away to stop it.’

‘I couldn’t smell the people coming as well as I thought I could,’ Wendy lamented. 

Natsu cursed, but Lucy raised a hand to calm him.

‘We knew there would be people here. We found Phil behind a locked door; we expected hostile resistance, right?’ 

‘Lucy,’ Juvia grunted, looking up from where Wendy was preparing to rip out the projectile. ‘Where is Rachel?’

The timing of fate was cruel, Lucy decided. A second scream tore through the sheets of rain, deafening and petrified, and coming from inside the cabin. 

‘Fuck,’ Natsu turned on his heel, sprinting up the steps. 

Lucy’s head spun, flipping from the friend bleeding in the rain and the friend barrelling into battle alone, and she stuttered out something incoherent.

‘Go!’ Gray yelled, pointing at the door. ‘Help Rachel; we got Juvia.’

The water woman’s eyes fluttered, ‘Gray, dear.’

‘More coming!’ Happy called down from among the treetops. Swooping down on ivory wings, he perched on the roof and repeated his warning. ‘There are more people coming.’

Gray’s jaw stiffened, ‘Go!’ 

That was enough for Lucy. Whipping back the long trail of her wet hair, the stellar mage bolted up the steps, following her partner inside the cabin. They promised Rachel. And Fairy Tail members never broke their promises. Lucy slammed the door back, letting rain spray into the room. 

Shorter than Rachel but stronger, the man was putting his strength on display as he restrained the squirming woman with one arm, the other pointing a knife in Natsu’s direction. The knife complimented the mad look in his eyes. Tamed, burnt umber hair was stretched back into a rain-slicked ponytail that flicked out against the base of his neck. 

‘You brought friends, Rachel,’ he rattled. ‘Do you know how much more I’m going to have to pay those men outside now?’

Rachel whimpered, struggling in the man’s hold. Despite addressing her, the man’s attention was entirely focused on the steaming dragon slayer - literally, steam was curling off his shoulders and doubling the temperature in the room. Still, Natsu held himself back. Rachel was within the range of any sort of attack; they needed to get her out of there if they wanted to stand a chance. 

‘I’m Kit, by the way,’ the man introduced obnoxiously, raising his voice to be heard over the rain. ‘Philly’s father. I don’t know who you are, but this does not concern you. So you can just scram!’

Lucy closed the door, shutting out the outside noise, ‘But it does concern us because Rachel and Phil are our friends.’

Rachel smiled weakly, ‘Lucy-’

‘Shut up,’ Kit growled, jostling Rachel. ‘I don’t care who you are. This is a family matter. In fact, you can just take this girl,’ he shook Rachel again, ‘and get out of here. I’ve told her many times to stay away from Phil, and she kept,’ shake, ‘coming,’ shake,’ back,’ shake.

‘I love Phil,’ Rachel coughed.’ ‘I love her, and you can’t stop us from being together!’ 

Kit’s eyes widened and Lucy’s heart leapt into her throat. Cold shivers broke out along her spine, tiptoeing up her back to numb her brain. 

‘Yes,’ he said lowly. ‘I can.’ 

The knife flashed. It went from pointing at Natsu to sliding along Rachel’s neck. Natsu growled, lighting his fists, ‘bastard’ seethed through his teeth, as Lucy screamed ‘no!’ 

‘Don’t! Phil screeched from the other room. ‘Papa, if you’ve ever loved me, _don’t kill her_.’ 

Tears were screaming down Rachel’s cheeks, sobs causing her chest to heave and her breath to stutter as she begged, ‘P-please. Kit-’

‘Don’t talk to me!’

Spittle flew from his mouth in rage. His own chest bounced with hard breaths, and he had everyone frozen in their place. 

‘Nobody move,’ he threatened. ‘I will kill her.’

Phil howled, ‘No!’ 

‘Kit, please calm down,’ Lucy tried. She was not ready to push her luck, but nothing was going to be achieved at a stalemate. ‘Natsu, fire out.’ 

Confused, Natsu flicked her a glance. There was a steady, composed look in the strong lines of her face that he knew and trusted. Once upon a time, playing second fiddle to anyone would’ve lit a fire in his belly that would’ve ended in burning buildings, many complaints and an entire sermon from the master. Now wasn’t once upon a time. Natsu recognised the cogs of Lucy’s brain churning as a plan skipped into motion, and he was okay to let it play out. 

 _I’ll follow your lead, Lucy,_ he thought. 

Lucy pressed forward, taking one step and stopping, ‘I understand, wanting the best for your child. My father, he,’ she swallowed, ‘he wanted the best for me, even if it meant he would decide who I married.

‘I don’t care who Phil marries,’ Kit spat. ‘As long as it's not her.’

‘But if Phil truly loves Rachel, why would you stand in their way?’

Natsu’s eyes widened. Then he blinked firmly to erase his surprise before Phil’s father noticed. In the motion of moving forward, Lucy had oh-so-sneakily plucked two celestial spirit keys from her keyring and crossed her hands behind her back in a fluid action. It was smooth and concealed, and Kit saw nothing. Channelling her magic in subtle waves, the keys began to emit warm, gold glow as Lucy contacted the spirit realm. Natsu suppressed an impressed smirk. Was that his partner or what? 

‘You may think you’re helping Phil, but in the end, you’re hurting him more.’

Kit sneered at her, ‘What would I care what you think? I don’t know who you are and I don’t care. To me, you’re some girl I could crush under my boot.’

‘She,’ Natsu said, speaking up for the first time, ‘is the celestial stellar mage, Lucy of Fairy Tail, and without her, you would be dead. Lucy held off the dragon Acnologia long enough for the dragon slayers to kill him. You will show her some respect. ’

Red dusted her cheeks at the extravagant introduction. Conveniently, Natsu forwent the fact that all the continent’s mages lent their power for her spell, and the stellar mage didn’t correct him. What did it matter anyway? Lucy had the idea, Lucy found the book, Lucy cast the spell. 

Kit went pale, the rage-filled rosiness of his cheeks draining away as his grip on the knife fell slack. The whole “crush under his boot” idea seemed to be fading rather fast. To his credit, Kit didn’t fall to his knees in awe or anything, overcoming the news and frowning first in disarray, then in displeasure, then in disbelief. 

‘You’re trouble!’ he declared, waving the knife around. ‘Interfering in other people’s business like pesky flies. Why don’t you just get?’

Three things happened at once. 

One, the bedroom door flung backwards. Bursting into the hallway was Cancer, summoned from inside the room to pick the lock, and a young woman. Short, dark brown hair curled around her ears, the locks falling in easy waves and bringing out the bewitching honey gold of her eyes. Right now that gold was hard and stern, firing figurative beams of light through Kit’s skull. 

Two, a hole opened up underneath Rachel. The wooden floorboards burst above a thin, drilled tunnel that disappeared into the earth. Startled by the slamming door, Kit’s hold went soft, allowing Rachel to slip from his arms right down into the hole where Virgo was waiting with open arms. 

Three, team Fairy Tail jumped into action. Lucy yelled ‘Now!’ and Natsu needed no further prompting. With Rachel safely out of the way and Kit distracted, the dragon slayer had no more barriers preventing a hefty fire dragon iron fist to the man’s jaw, which is exactly what went down. The back wall erupted in an explosion of wooden shrapnel as Kit flew out into the rain. 

‘Papa!’ the woman screamed, running to the house’s edge. 

Lucy closed the gates of her spirits, sending them a silent thank you, as Natsu sent a questioning look the woman’s way, ‘Wait, you’re Phil?’

She straightened, staring at him down her nose, ‘I am Philomena Sanders. Where’s Rachel?’ 

‘She’s fine,’ Lucy promised, hands up placatingly. ‘Virgo should’ve popped up out the front where our friends are.’ She took a breath, ‘I’m sorry, we didn’t realise you were-’

‘A girl?’ Philomena supplied. Lightning crackled in the accusatory gaze in her eyes, reflected by the lightning flash above the treetops. ‘That’s why my dad wants us apart. Got a problem with it?’

Natsu shrugged, ‘Not especially.’

‘Kinda wish I’d known so I wasn’t so thrown off when you appeared,’ Lucy admitted. ‘I was expecting a boy, so I thought you were some kind of decoy.’

Phil’s gaze melted, ‘Okay. You guys are friends with Rachel, right?’ A smile brightened her face, ‘Thank you. If you guys hadn’t been here, I would’ve been forced back to Crocus.’

‘Phil!’

In a blur of golden locks and navy cloak, Rachel flew into the room, latching herself onto her betrothed with no intention of letting go. Phil and Rachel grappled each other in a close embrace. Nudging Natsu, Lucy stepped back to give them space. It was short-lived.

‘Philomena!’ Kit roared. 

Under fire from the pounding storm and the thunderous stares of the group, Kit staggered to his feet. His jacket smouldered, one side almost entirely burnt up, courtesy of Natsu’s flames. Soot dusted his face and the ends of his hair, getting caught up in the rain and running like mascara. 

Phil shook her head, ‘No more, papa. Please, stop this.’

‘I will not allow this, Philly.’ Kit spoke with such certainty but his authority was weakened by his tattered appearance as he stood in the rain. 

Patting one of Natsu’s hands, Lucy left his side, walking up to the hole in the wall to be by Phil. There were so many things she wanted to say. Lucy knew she didn’t have the right; she wasn’t in love and never had been. But her heart told her that this was wrong. _Love is the most powerful magic of all_ , her mother used to say. She could hardly believe that the most powerful magic in the world would discriminate such minor details. 

‘Love is love,’ she said, ‘and it’s not okay to put boundaries on it.’

Her words were careful, but her confidence grew and she found the words waiting when she looked for them, ‘Love is waking up in the morning to your favourite person in the world; it’s spending time with them just because you want; it’s enduring all the annoying things about them because all of their best qualities make you love them so much more.’

Mornings of warmth and security, followed by screaming and then a sigh; relenting, relaxing, trading irritation for laughter. A book in her hand, a fishing rod in his, and an exceed dancing around a bucket soon to be filled with fish. In the end, she never finished the page and he never caught a thing. Impulsive, stubborn, loyal, protective; and to her, he showed caring, calm, conscientious; a man like any other, and yet so much more. 

 _She wasn’t in love and never had been, right?_  

‘None of that has to happen with a man and a woman.’

‘It isn’t _right_!’ Kit exclaimed, stamping his foot like an ornery child. ‘Love is marriage and a family and children! How can they have that together?’

Arguments for the sake of argument. Lucy had seen them before, in a column at Sorcerer Weekly that she had (begrudgingly) editing and readied for print. She recalled being so infuriated that she went home and wrote an entire counter article rebutting each and every one of the arguments. Jason had found it about two weeks later and, impressed with her articulation of anger in the piece, allowed it in the next issue. With all her counter-arguments in mind, Lucy tapped her foot. 

‘Pardon me if I’m wrong, but there are many little boys and girls out there without parents who would love the care that Phil and Rachel could give them.’

‘Besides,’ Natsu interjected, appearing again by her elbow, ‘family ain’t about who you’re related to. It’s who you choose.’

A quick look at the dragon slayer said he wasn’t backing down on this one. A family he didn’t remember, a foster father he spent a lifetime chasing after, a demon heritage he didn’t choose, a brother than loved him and hated him all at once, even as he plotted humanities demise. Fairy Tail was Natsu’s family. It had been since Igneel disappeared and it would be until the day he died. His family was Happy and Lucy, and Wendy and Carla, and sometimes Erza and Gray, when he wasn’t challenging them to a fight. Natsu fixed a stern gaze on Kit. Suddenly the fire was physically, and it burned up the length of his arms and leapt into his eyes.

‘If love can exist between a demon and a fairy, then it sure as hell can exist between two girls.’

Mavis, the cursed fairy, and Zeref, the cursed demon. But wait, that wasn’t right, was it? Natsu was the monster and Zeref his Frankenstein. So it was Natsu, the demon, and Lucy, the fairy. It was Lucy, wasn’t it? It was always Lucy.

A battle waged in Natsu’s mind, quieted by the presence of its source at his side. Lucy smiled at him, touched by his words. 

Kit fell to his knees, and in the screaming of the storm it was hard to tell what was rain and what was tears, ‘I just want you to live a happy life, Philly.’

‘Rachel _does_ make me happy, papa,’ Philomena said. ‘We’ve been trying to tell you. One day you’ll have the grandkids you’ve always wanted, and I promise Rachel will be an amazing daughter in law.’

Rachel flushed but nodded. 

‘Then,’ Kit’s head dropped. He didn’t speak for a long time. ‘Then, I wanna give you my blessing. If you’re gonna run away anyway, I don’t want you getting married without my blessing.’

Phil sobbed, ‘Oh, papa.’

The drop from house to grass was short, and Phil cleared it with ease. Rachel watched with tears forming. Dancers feet didn’t so much as trip until Phil fell into her father’s embrace, crashing together in a hug so tight Lucy felt the ripple of emotion from the gap in the wall. Rain fell but neither of them seemed to care. 

Sensing her anguish, Natsu tucked the stellar mage into her side, hand on her shoulder pulling her closer, and Lucy revelled in the father-daughter reunion that she never had. 

 

‘Fairy Tail, we don’t know how to thank you.’

Clean up of the rental cabin was taken up by Kit with apologies and assurances, and in the two days since Phil’s rescue, Fairy Tail had been informed that he had returned to Crocus. In his absence, Phil and Rachel and begun to arrange a much larger affair now financed by the man. 

Clear skies as far as the eye can see allowed them to meet in the sun on Fairy Tail’s front steps. The rescue team, joined by Mira, Erza and the Master were gathered to farewell Phil and Rachel, and to wish them a safe journey back to Crocus. Natsu and Lucy headed the group. The two girls had freshened up nicely. A bath and a hot meal had done wonders for their smiles. 

Rachel twisted her silver ring around in circles, the piece fitting like a glove on her slender finger. It wasn’t until now, with the lovers beside each other, that Lucy recognised an identical ring slipped onto Phil’s left hand. She allowed herself a secret smile. 

‘You saved Phil _and_ changed her father’s mind,’ Rachel raved. ‘We’ve been trying for years.’

‘Maybe he saw something different in you two,’ Philomena flung an arm over her betrothed’s shoulders. ‘Maybe he saw something in you’re love for each other that made him think twice about what you were saying.’

The stellar mage blushed beet red, ‘Oh! You mean- we- we’re not-’ 

Natsu blinked like he’d been slapped. A blank look slid over his face as his mind whirred on super-speed (which was only about as fast as the average train) trying to make sense of what _that_ meant.  

Phil winked, ‘Aw, what a shame.’

‘If you are in the future though, make sure to send us a wedding invite,’ Rachel giggled. No traces of humour laced her tone, so Lucy knew she was serious. 

‘See you in three months!’ 

A short adventure came to an end as Fairy Tail waved goodbye to the wonderful couple, and kept waving until they’d disappeared from sight. The crowd began to disperse. One by one, two by two, and three by three. Until only Natsu, Lucy, and a lingering Happy remained. With a flick of the head from Natsu, the exceed too vanished into the guildhall. 

Once again, Natsu appeared by her without warning, ‘So, you wanna talk about that?’

If Lucy’s face could deepen in colour, it would’ve. Instead, she squeaked something like a yes, managed a brisk nod and took his waiting hand as he led her into yet another adventure on their never-ending list of adventures. 

 

Four Years Later … 

_To Mrs Rachel Sanders and Mrs Philomena Sanders,_  
_With great pleasure_  
_Natsu Dragneel and Lucy Heartfilia_  
_invite you to join them at the celebration of their marriage_  
_Tuesday, July 2, X797 at two-thirty in the afternoon_  
_Kardia Cathedral - Magnolia, Fiore_  
_Dinner and dancing to follow at the Fairy Tail Guildhall_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little less centred on Nalu, but I liked the adventure and the implications. The next one is a lot more Nalu-centric, I promise! Um, oh! - the cottage is based off the Log House on the 22nd Floor of Aincrad, in Sword Art Online. Different interior, but a similar exterior, to give you guys some idea of what I was going for. 
> 
> Again, please stick around for the rest of the week, and a reminder that I update per AEST (Australian Eastern Standard Time), so it may not be the written date for you when I publish, but it is for me. Thanks for reading, leave kudos if you enjoyed it!


	3. Lost

**Title** : The Maze of Deimos  
**Prompt** : Lost (July 3rd)  
**Words** : 8839  
**Synopsis** : A suspicious request leads Natsu, Lucy and Happy into an impenetrable maze where they soon get lost and become separated. The magic of this maze, as they discover, is the simulation of all your greatest fears. [CU]

 

Little was known about the Maze of Deimos. For a thousand years, it had stood in the very centre of Fiore, nestled amongst the mountains, formed from hedges that couldn’t be cut or passed through. One step inside the maze always moved you further than you had intended to go, and you could never seem to leave the same way you entered. 

That being said, few that had entered had ever returned sane of mind. Those who did told tales of death and destruction; of a world raining fire and brimstone as the oceans rose to crash down hell and the heavens shook as cities fell. Loved ones dead at their feet with gruesome injuries that no human man could inflict. Jaw marks, vicious slashes, a hole chewed through. 

Illusion magic, and some powerful magic at that. Lucy was sure of it. And any magic shaped from illusions and lies always - _always_  - had the same weakness; awareness. If they knew they were seeing illusions then they could pass unaffected. She was so sure. It was basic logic, and that was her strong suit. Mind games and puzzles, and tricks of thought. 

She underestimated the rage of Phobos and the ghost of Deimos.

And because she was so sure, Natsu and Happy accompanied her. They trusted her - put their lives in her hands, even. She was betraying them by being wrong. But it was too late. Once the maze has you, it doesn’t plan on letting go. 

 

‘This is it,’ Lucy puffed, resting the map against her thighs to take a breather. ‘The Maze of Deimos.’

The shrubbery grew freely and tall, stopping at a height over twice Natsu’s size. Where a normal hedge maze would be trimmed and well taken care of, the Maze of Deimos was untamed, climbing vines entwining in the hedges and forming a woven wall that was impenetrable to pass. Somehow, despite the wildness of the flora, the paths themselves remained unaffected. Lucy supposed that would be the magic of the maze. 

Natsu looked up at their entrance, whistling lowly, ‘Didn’t undersell it, huh?’

‘Aye,’ Happy agreed. 

Neither was as winded as Lucy, but that she expected. The Maze of Deimos was not exactly on Fiore’s Top 10 Tourist Destinations, and as such there were no train lines that went out this far. The nearest town was in a mining district to the east where the train only came twice a week. From there, the team was forced to march for half a day until they reached the lonely home of the accursed maze. 

Folding up the map the client gave them, Lucy spun around to deliver the instructions that she was sure would be ignored somewhere along the line. Happy yelped and hid in the mop of his partner’s pink locks, but Natsu only smiled slyly at her stern expression. She might act the mother hen, but they all knew the barbarian spirit that lurked underneath her domineering guise. 

‘Alright. Remember, we’re looking for the Tears of Phobos.’ Lucy swapped her gaze between the boys, forcing them to keep eye contact. ‘The maze is really dangerous, so keep close to each other and don’t get separated or lost.’

‘Ah, danger smanger,’ Natsu waved dismissively. He pounded his fist into the palm of his opposite hand, and flames roared to life on cue. ‘I’ll just bust us outta there.’

Lucy rolled her eyes. Obviously, this rehash _was_ required, because she specifically recalled already doing this speech on the train ride over. Then again, Natsu on a train was as out of commission as he got. And besides, if Natsu didn’t threaten to blow up their obstacles at least once per quest, was he really Natsu at all?

‘The maze walls are indestructible,’ she reminded him. ‘They’re enchanted and impervious to all kinds of physical and magical attacks.’

With a _humph_ , Natsu crossed his arms, a pout flitting across his lips, ‘Whatever.’

Lucy sighed, ‘You have to take this seriously. This maze is known to drive people mad.’ Turning back to the maze, she scanned its eerie, silent halls and tensed back a shiver. ‘If we lose focus, we’ll get swallowed and never come out.’

Comfort settled on her shoulder, a warm and familiar sensation. It was the kind of touch that evaporated doubts, inspired courage, and let peace settle inside the soul. 

‘That’s not gonna happen,’ Natsu promised, smacking a fist to his shoulder. ‘We’re Fairy Tail. And there is no way I’m losing to a bunch of bushes.’ 

Happy stuck up from over his head, ‘Aye, Lushee. We’ll get the treasure, easy peasy!’

As confident as ever. Cracking a smile, the stellar mage felt a surge of solace and gratitude. This ragtag pair of a boy and his cat had stumbled into her life almost nine years ago, and yet she still thanked fate every day for their presence beside her from when she wakes to when she sleeps. What would have terrified her, she now pushed through; what she would have run from, she now strode towards with pride. And it was all because of these two rascals. 

‘You guys,’ she huffed. Whether she blinked back a tear or not would remain unclear, but after another long breath, she was back in mother hen mode. ‘Okay, if we stick to the left wall, we can find our way back out by following the right wall. So follow me, and stick to the left-hand side. And whatever you see, remember that it's _not real_.’ 

‘Aye, sir!’ they chorused. 

Into the maze the delved. 

Right away, the atmosphere changed. The base of the mountains had been relatively dry, with sparse vegetation and an abundance of red dirt due to the mining in the area. The opposite could be said for the other side of the walls. High humidity slapped them in the face barely a step inside the maze. Dirt and stones covered the paths, preventing any grass from growing. Silence hung around them in the air like a thick gel, slipping through the cracks in the hedges and sliding over their bodies until the sensation of defilement covered them like a second skin. 

‘Ngh,’ Happy clung tighter to Natsu’s shoulder. ‘It’s scary here.’

Sniffing the air, the dragon slayer recoiled, ‘Smells really bad. The air is heavy with magic.’

Lucy led the way down the entry path, gliding her left hand along the vine-riddled hedges. Pins and needles ripped along the pads of her fingers whenever they made contact with the maze’s walls. Ahead, the wall she was palming turned to the left and she followed it. 

‘That’s the magic of Phobos.’ Lucy couldn’t help whispering, and couldn’t shake the feeling as if something were hovering over her shoulder, breathing down her neck. ‘His younger brother, Deimos, was born with dark magic he couldn’t control, and people hunted him for it. He built the maze to hide them, but they were found. They killed his brother and his magic erupted, and settled inside Phobos.’ Lucy’s shoulders curled in. ‘Phobos killed the people and cried. His tears became known as the Tears of Phobos - a powerful, magical force of purity and mourning.’

Or so the story went. Lucy was well versed in Fiore’s famous ghost stories and haunted locations, in part because of her little bookworm friend’s fascination with grisly history stories, and in part because of her own morbid curiosity. Levy enjoyed tales of horror, but Lucy reached for the ones of lost love and sorrow. 

Lucy cleared her throat, ‘Anyway, that’s what powers the magic of the maze. And that’s why we’re looking for the Tears. The client wants to research their magical properties, and hopefully, it’ll lead to some massive leaps in the medical industry.’ 

No response. 

Lucy frowned. It wasn’t unusual for Natsu and Happy not to care about the finer details of their missions or the consequences of them, but she still expected a comment about her weird knowledge or a question of when they could break things. The silence was odd. It was rattling.

‘Natsu? Happy?

The path behind her was bare. Where the turn she just made should’ve been there was a dead end. How did she end up in a dead-end? Where was the path she had just followed? Where were her best friends?

‘Natsu?’ Lucy called, panic clinging to the shrill curls of her words as her voice rose in a steady incline. ‘Happy? Where did you go? Don’t … don’t leave me!’ 

 

‘Lucy!’ Natsu cupped his hands around his mouth, increase the volume of his shout. ‘Happy! Where are you?! Damn.’

One moment he was traipsing after Lucy, calming listening to her talk about the history of the maze in that enthralling way she did when a story excited her, and the next he was staring at a hedge wall, miles away from his two partners if his nose was right. And Natsu trusted his nose. 

‘Tch.’

Natsu tried to recall what it was Lucy had said about the maze. Something about making people go mad, and how it was really bad to get lost. He snorted; so much for avoiding that. 

With little option but to start walking, the dragon slayer riled himself into action. Immediately he was met with a crossroad and went left. Left was what Lucy had told him, so left was the way he would go. He may not have been remembering that correctly, but time was of the essence. A brisk walk quickened into a jog, and then he was sprinting down the hedge maze corridors. 

His next choice was which way to go at T-junction. If he continued straight, the path went on with no corners of breaks to the sides as far his dragon eyes could make out in the heavy mist. In an effort to find Lucy, or even the middle of the maze of a way out, at this point, Natsu served right, maintaining his momentum with a skilful pivot of his foot. 

That momentum thrust him forward, straight into a freshly dug hole. 

‘Whoa!’

Natsu’s sandals screeched against the pebbles as he teetered on the edge of the pit. Its depth couldn’t be determined by sight alone. Blackness crawled along the dirt walls, exposing earthworms and ants, and bugs of burrowing natures. His balance was precarious, but after waving his arms in circles a few time in the most foolish way, his footing became steadily sturdy. 

‘It’s okay,’ a soft voice caressed his ear. ‘You’ll be alright.’

A shove came from behind, directly in the centre of his back and throwing his balance off entirely. Natsu pitched into the hole headfirst. The earth whistled past him as his voice was ripped from his mouth and thrown to the wind. Falling, falling, falling, and never stopping. And then the voices appeared by his head, their words loud against the rush of the fall. 

‘Give up. I did.’

‘It’s not worth it anymore, kid.’

‘Put down your fists.’

‘Join us here, it’ll be okay.’

Familiarity was as reassuring as it was disturbing. His heart wanted to welcome these voices as friends, but in the back of his mind, he knew that the words were all wrong. It was crushing. Confusion pounded at his head, exploding into a fiery headache that wrenched all coherent thought from his brain. 

‘Don’t bother fighting anymore.’

‘Please give up.’

The whistling stopped. As Natsu heaved to catch his breath, bleary eyes blinked comfortable scenery into existence around him. It was the guildhall. Guild members were scattered among the benches, discussing topics of interest in hushed voices, and a rush of relief warmed him.

But something was wrong.

Chatter was dull and quiet if it was there at all. Nobody was drinking and every head was dipped as if in mourning, saddened eyes keeping moods low. The tense atmosphere had clipped off all the excitement and the liveliness from the room the way a keeper clipped the wings of his bird to prevent it from flying away. 

‘Yo!’ Natsu called, letting his voice benefit from the amplification of the guild’s natural acoustics. No heads turned his way. ‘What’s up?’

Silence. A scowl wormed its way in replace of the relieved grin. Natsu glanced around, looking for someone who could explain things, and found someone better.

‘Lucy!’ he yelled, waving as he jogged over. ‘Thank god you’re here! I thought I lost you in the maze.’

A gasp stuck in his throat as dusty brown eyes flicked up to meet his, and Lucy didn’t so much as acknowledge him with a word. Something that wasn’t quite fear - not yet - choked him up. Hopelessness churned like sand in water, sinking deeper into her eyes until they would eventually become a permanent feature of her face. It wasn’t a look someone like Lucy should ever wear. It wasn’t something that looked like his Lucy at all.

‘What’s going on?’ he asked, almost dreading the answer.

Lucy’s dry lips moved and she spoke like a doll, her words predetermined and fake, ‘We gave up.’

Natsu blinked, ‘What?’

‘We gave up,’ Lucy repeated. ‘You were supposed to save us, and you couldn’t. There’s nothing else we can do, so we gave up before it all ends.’

‘What?!’

Natsu gaped, looking up to see the listless faces of Gray and Erza staring back at him. Their eyes too were drowning in a sea of despair and loss, the dryness suggesting that they weren’t willing to cry about it. 

Fairy Tail gave up? And it was his fault?

‘Don’t bother fighting anymore,’ said Gray. His tone was always cool with a lack of emotion, but now it was frigid and dead. Not even a spark of rivalry remained. 

Erza nodded stiffly, ‘Join us here.’

Falling back, Natsu’s mind scrambled to process. Give up; how could they give up? Fairy Tail never gave up. It was an unwritten rule that was carved into the heart of every Fairy Tail member that you did not give up until your last breath was gone and your body ceased to move. Giving up was not in their vocabulary. 

Erza and Gray were some of the strongest people Natsu knew, and Lucy too. Together, they had overcome enemy after enemy, moving mountains and entire oceans in the process of doing so. Around the guildhall, more faces came into focus; Gajeel, Wendy, Levy, and the exceeds; Cana, the Master and Gildarts; the Strauss siblings, Bisca, Alzack, Asuka, Wakaba, Macao and Romeo. Downtrodden faces with no faith left to inspire and no one left to lift their spirits. 

‘No,’ he muttered. ‘You can’t.’ In a louder voice, he cried, ‘You can’t do this. Fairy Tail never backs down; never! We stand up against anyone who threatens our family.’

‘Natsu.’ 

His breath caught again on the dull edge of Lucy’s eyes that used to be so sharp, almost as sharp as her tongue. Instead, she stared at him like her mind wasn’t there. Her fingers curled around the edge of his coat, and from her lips fell the words he never wanted to hear again. 

‘Please give up.’

Turning on his heel, Natsu bolted as fast as his legs would take him, flinging open the guild doors and welcoming the daunting darkness. 

 

Tight bands of apprehension squeezed around Lucy’s ribcage, their force threatening to shatter her bones and turn them into blades that would impale her heart. Alone and wandering through a cursed maze, knowing what it could throw at her. Madness, torment, visions and terror. 

‘Natsu?’ she tried again, knowing full well the Maze of Deimos had likely positioned him miles away. It made her feel like she was doing something, so she continued anyway. ‘Happy?’

Her fingers tapped to a jittery beat on her thighs. Following the left wall was no longer important thanks to the shocking existence of the maze’s ever-changing structure that definitely wasn’t mentioned in the brochure. Every turn was a sigh of relief. Lucy didn’t know what to expect, but she knew how to protect herself. 

 _Steel your mind_ , she chanted. _Harden your thoughts. Don’t let the maze get into your head_. 

‘The maze is always in your head, my dear Lucy.’

Lucy’s eyes snapped open, temporarily forgetting how to breathe, ‘Mama?’

Like looking in a mirror. If it weren’t for the extra ten years that lined the shadows under eyes or the grace and poise with which Layla held herself, it may have been. The same golden locks were tucked up into her favourite high bun, held back by a baby pink band that Lucy had seen many times and had stored away in her apartment in a box of her mother’s things. Her eyes were kind, expectant and assured. 

‘Mama,’ Lucy whispered. ‘How are you here?’

Layla smiled, ‘I’m not. The magic of the maze has envisioned me. I must say, you’re quite a bright and aware girl.’

Realties conflicted in Lucy’s mind, ‘So, you’re not mama?’

‘Well, of course, I’m your mother, Lucy.’ Layla chided like Lucy was just a child saying something silly. ‘The maze brought  _your_ memory of me to life.’

As impossible as it was, she couldn’t help but indulge in the maze’s magic for just a moment. Tears were hot and flush in her eyes as she ran the rest of the way to her mother’s open arms and settled there for the first time since she was ten. Memories of trust and comfort flared forth from the back of her mind. 

‘I have so much to tell you,’ she mumbled into her mother’s chest. Looking up into her face, Lucy’s smile dimmed when Layla’s appeared strained. 

‘Are you sure you want to?’

‘What?’

Layla regarded her daughter with eyes as hard and polished as stones, ‘You may not like what I have to say.’

Never in her life had Lucy felt uncomfortable around her mother. Layla was compassionate. Layla was sincere. The slow dragging of nails down her spine and the quickening beat of her heart were the reactions of someone anxious and afraid, igniting her flight or fight response. It wasn’t the response of a daughter uniting with her late mother. It frightened her. 

‘What does that mean?’

‘It means that I’m disappointed in you, Lucy,’ said Layla. ‘You ran away from your father. You endangered the keys I always told you to keep safe. And most of all, you failed to live up to what a stellar mage can be.’

The words faltered from Lucy’s lips, fumbling one after another in their attempt to be heard. ‘I-I don’t understand. Mama, you … you …’

‘Oh please, Lucy, you are a smart girl.’ Layla crossed her arms elegantly across her chest. Judgement spiralled off her in waves, the aloof disposition such a jarring reversal of the beloved woman’s usual temperament. ‘Or maybe your memory of me isn’t quite as sharp as you thought.’

‘No … no,’ Lucy tried in vain not to stutter. ‘Mama would never say those things. I know my mother, and you’re not her!’

She smiled, and it was so Layla that it hurt. The graceful curl of her lips that made it all the way to her eyes, warming up the cocoa colour that Lucy was fortunate to inherit. Despite her age, no wrinkles marred her face. Smooth, pale skin shaped an eternally young and beautiful face that was so familiar that Lucy’s chest ached with the weight of confusion and turmoil.

‘But I am, my dear Lucy. And that’s what scares you most, isn’t it? You think your mother approves of all your deeds, but tell me: why would I approve of an improper, selfish, runaway daughter who uses her body like the tools she treats her spirits as?’

Lucy’s teeth groaned as they ground against each other, fighting to repress her anger. This illusion could never masquerade as her mother, and she was a moron for believing it. 

‘I don’t treat my spirits like tools! They’re my friends!’ 

Layla shook her head, a minute movement as dignified as her stance, ‘You delude yourself, Lucy. You tell yourself lies to live with yourself, all because you know I would never approve of the person you’ve become.’

‘No,’ Lucy stumbled back. Every word - every accusation - was a punch to her gut. She couldn’t breathe. Her cheeks were warm with tears that soaked her skin. 

‘I gave up everything for you,’ continued her mother. ‘I sacrificed my life so that you wouldn’t feel the burden of opening the gate, and you threw your life away regardless. You discarded my efforts and spat on my sacrifice.’

‘That isn’t true! You’re not my mother! You’re lying!’ 

‘Ask yourself, which one of us is the liar here, my dear Lucy?’ Chagrin snaked around her tone, constricting her words and moulding them into a long, thin spear to stab, stab, stab. ‘You disappoint me, you disappoint your father, and you disappoint yourself.’

‘Shut-up! Just shut up!’

Distance was all that mattered. The more she put between herself and that deception, the better off she would be. Breathing became laborious and painful, struggling to keep up with the sobs that wracked her chest and her feet pounding against the misty floor that didn’t exist. She wasn’t sure when the Maze of Deimos had disappeared, and it didn’t matter. 

The stellar mage turned and ran. Just like she always did. 

 

The guildhall deposited Natsu into a field on fire. Trees were aflame in the distance, spilling smoke into the crimson skyline. Smouldering grass and burnt out patches of dry mud spread out along the landscape as far as the eye could see, and even further beyond that. Snapping branches mingled with the crackling of flames and the screams of men, women and children, falling together in place to create a macabre symphony of terror. 

Natsu’s body moved in a sluggish shuffle. Heaviness laden down his limbs, dropping his head when his neck’s strength gave out. The stink of smog and everything burning lingered in his head, weighing him down even further as it clung to him like a dreadful cloak. He stepped forward and something bumped his foot.

Bile scratched up his throat and the dragon slayer emptied his stomach to the left of the body. 

Gaunt and burned, the once beautiful body of Fairy Tail’s very own water woman had become reduced to a sizzling corpse. The left half of Juvia’s face was completely melted off. Features that had captivated many a man had been liquified and melded, her left eye, nose and lip meshing into a conglomerate of flesh and tissue. Horrific burns seared away her clothes and the skin of her torso. The damage done could have never been repaired.

‘J-Juvia?’ he stammered, collapsing to his knees. Disbelief clouded his mind. ‘Hey, Juvia?’

He reached out for her and recoiled, refusing to touch her like _that_. Venomous red claws moved where his hands should be, steam rising off the dragonesque scales as their surface temperature warred viciously with the atmosphere. Natsu rose to unsteady feet and fell back, retching. 

‘GET AWAY FROM HER!’ 

Gray snarled like a monster himself. If there ever was a cool, relaxed man in him, there wasn’t now and probably never would be again. Rage manifested in popping icicles around his fists. Navy eyes regarded him with animosity and a severe lack of any kind of love, even brotherly. Soot blended his skin into his hairline, and a fierce burn reached down the length of his face, the flesh occasionally bubbling in its anger and matching a much larger burn circling his torso. 

‘Gray?’ How did he get here so quickly? Natsu whipped his head around to the guild doors, only to find the fiery field stretch further back behind him. ‘I don’t- what’s going on?’

Erza appeared at the ice mage’s shoulder, mourning openly. Her hair was shorter than he remembered, her ponytail dangling as far as her shoulder blades, the ends charred black and still tangled with orange embers. She cried into her hands, drowned eyes caught on Juvia’s mangled body at his feet. 

‘How could you, Natsu? We trusted you.’

This was him? No, that was impossible. There was no more demon seed or dragon seed. He was human. Natsu was human. Control was his, and there was no way he would do anything like this. 

‘Guys, I didn’t-’ he tried, words failing him as they often did. ‘I couldn’t-’

Hyperventilation was closing in, four walls preparing to box and trap him. His demon side had been vanquished, both by his declaration of his humanity and Lucy’s rewriting of his life story. It was gone, and it was never coming back. So why was everyone looking at him like that, and why had the claws returned. It was impossible; it wasn’t possible. 

It was what he feared most. 

‘This isn’t me,’ he insisted, sounding weak even to his own ears. ‘I’m Natsu, not E.N.D. Gray, Erza; you know I couldn’t do this.’

‘You nearly killed me back then,’ sneered Gray. ‘We barely know anything about you. You killed Juvia, and you’ll kill us too.’

Natsu quelled a sob. Tears evaporated the moment they dropped from his lashes. His family really believed that he was possible of this kind of evil. There was no recovery from that. 

‘Please.’ Behind them, a flash of yellow and blue flashed a beam of hope into his heart. Just like they always did; they were his angels of light in every battle, every conflict, every moment. ‘Lucy, Happy.’

The exceed was settled deep in her embrace, held careful like an infant and tender like a son. Natsu knew Lucy was the mother Happy had always wanted. Instead of saying anything, Happy turned into Lucy’s arms, hiding his face and his tears not like he was ashamed but like he was afraid. Afraid of Natsu?

Lucy didn’t have so many qualms. She let him see her. In the light of the fires ravaging the landscapes, she pushed past their guildmates and faced him, letting him see the three sunken gashes across her face that matched the width of his claws exactly. Natsu’s breath staggered and stopped. 

Creeping down like vines, the three gouge marks began at her temple and ended at her jaw. They hadn’t paused to spare her left eye. The lid was forced closed but its concave quality spoke of the emptiness beneath. Grime and blood were smudged across her face like she’d tried to wipe it away with her sleeve, only succeeding to tarnish her pretty face further. Unlike the others, her expression was passive. She was tired. She was hurting. 

‘Lucy,’ he muttered, head spinning. ‘No.’

She shook her head, wincing every time she blinked. Happy whimpered, digging closer into Lucy’s shoulder as teardrops were left to dribble down her forearm. What was left in her right eye was dim and weary, muddy pools that were deep enough to stand in and drown. 

‘Live and regret.’

They fell. In the same second, Lucy, Happy, Gray and Erza dropped like their tendons were severed, collapsing to a fire bitten earth that began to simmer and cook their bodies. And then they began to sink. The ground opened its thieving maw and swallowed them whole, one by one. 

Dropping like a stone to his knees, Natsu screamed until his voice was hoarse. Juvia was gone too. All of a sudden it was him and this world he had created. His insides burned, liquid magma trickling down his throat, slow and deliberate, while he began to suffocate from a lack of movement in his lungs. And in the heat of it all, he failed to even cry. 

 

Happy hated being alone. If Natsu was busy, he visited Fairy Hills. If they were hanging out in the guild, he chatted with Carla and Pantherlily. If they were at Lucy’s apartment, he bothered her until she paid attention to him. It was in his feline nature to crave attention on his own terms. 

Caged and displayed was not part of his ideal attention. Quite the opposite. Happy knew he was special - exceeds were, after all, not native to Earthland - but special did not mean he was comfortable with being ogled at and prodded by people who thought he was “interesting”, or “cute”, or “unusual”. He was still a person like any other. 

His fears came alive, chasing him into a corner where a trap awaited. And suddenly he was on a pedestal. Bars were at his back and his sides, and above and in front and below. They were thin and well placed, preventing even a small-bodied creature like him from sliding out and escaping. 

Happy was set atop a swinging perch he’d seen before in a birdcage at a pet store that they’d visited when Lucy was contemplating getting a hamster or a guinea pig (thank goodness they’d talked her out of that one). The cage provided him with enough room to move and fly, but he was discouraged. 

On the ground, familiar faces looked up and pointed. Natsu eyed him with his arm around Lucy, Wendy to one side of him, and Lisanna on the other. Huddled together they gushed and gawked, cheering on for the “flying kitty” to take flight; he was tonight’s entertainment. 

Two identical cages hung in a triangular formation with his, and inside them flew two exceeds that Happy knew well. Lily and Carla had surrendered to a life of imprisonment and humiliation. Circles and loops and petty little tricks kept an audience of young children and families engaged as the _oh-ed_ and _ah-ed,_  and threw little bits of fish into the cages for the exceeds to catch. 

‘This one’s boring,’ Lucy stated, pouting up at him. ‘It won’t fly.’

Natsu shrugged, ‘Wanna go check out the other exhibits?’ _Exhibits?!_  

Springing onto her tiptoes, Lucy pecked him on the cheek, ‘Let’s go! Wendy, Lisanna; coming?’ 

Alone. Abandoned. An attraction. Ashamed. 

This is what he was? A funny animal to be put on display, dancing to the tune of humans, only ever seeing his dear friends when they came to poke fun at him. No rescue coming from Natsu; he was preoccupied with Lucy. No rescue coming from the exceeds; they were as caged as him. No rescue coming from anyone; he was forgotten, subdued, undignified. 

Curling up on his perch, Happy rolled himself into a ball and cried. 

 

Lucy woke up never knowing when she passed out. The ground she lay on was rough, arid, discomfort cramping her muscles from being asleep there for what felt like a long time. 

Thunderous growls jolted her upright, snapping her spine as straight as a ruler. Her surroundings took a few seconds to adjust to. It was a modern styled home once. Now half of the room had caved in, stonework crumbling and a boulder triple her size taking up the majority of the available space. A feeble campfire emitted its best light from the base of the boulder. 

Her resting place was a thick strip of hay to create a mattress of sorts and no pillow. An identical bunk was arranged to her right, a mere arm's length away, where a recognizable figure snored with his back to her. His pink hair was dusted with an assortment of powders; dirt and ash. 

‘Natsu,’ Lucy hissed under her breath. ‘Hey, Natsu.’

She reached out to shake his shoulder and screamed. 

Natsu was on his feet in seconds, red and orange ribbons of flame ripping away from his fists. Confusion wracked him at first. His sleep ridden gaze searched around their hideaway for the danger her piercing shriek had alerted him to but not finding it. Only when his eyes fell back down to her did he realise.

‘Shit.’ Snatching some bandages that lay between their resting places, Natsu kneeled at her side, taking her chin in a gentle grip that belonged to a much tamer man. ‘The bandages just came off in the night, okay? Look, I’ll do them back up and you won’t have to see it.’

Pants and hiccups restricted Lucy’s breathing, ‘It was … my … it just … N-Natsu …’

He grimaced, finishing his work with a tight knot, ‘I know, I know. Here.’

Pulling her forward, Natsu folded his arms around her waist and cradled her against his chest. Incoherent stutters tumbled from her lips while reassuring comfort came from his. Lucy allowed Natsu to rock her into silence, the soothing warmth that surrounded him like a personal bubble calming the distressed skip of her heart. A loud crash resounded beyond their abode but Natsu didn’t let her leave his hold. 

‘We’re gonna be alright,’ he promised. ‘We’re gonna make it through this.’

Lucy gnawed on her bottom lip, ‘What is “this”?’

Natsu frowned, pulling back enough to see her but refusing to lower his arms, ‘The Dragons, Lucy. I was up late last night, and I think they’re headed back this way. We’re gonna have to leave here before they come. 

‘Dragons?’ Lucy exhaled harshly, her lungs shrivelling up like dying fruit. ‘Natsu, you beat Acnologia. You’re the King of the Dragons.’

That was apparently it for the dragon slayer. Releasing Lucy gently back onto her straw patch, Natsu spun on his knees to retrieve a large pack that was resting at the head and then stood to move about the room, shoving scattered belongings inside. A water bottle and a plastic bag in the corner, some drying clothes by the fire, 

‘You’re confusing dreams with reality again, Lucy,’ he deadpanned. 

‘But I’m not!’ Lucy insisted, drawing to her knees. ‘This isn’t real. This is … this is an illusion.’

Dragon eyes trained on her in a way that was both encouraging and daunting. Natsu’s narrow, ebony gaze was strong, his lips pressed into an uncharacteristic thin line as he regarded her. It was a look that said he didn’t believe her. 

‘Look,’ Natsu sighed. He ran a hand through his hair, ruffling up already ruffled locks. ‘I know this is all fucked up, but its too soon for you to break down like this. I’m gonna need Lucy - my Lucy; my incredibly smart, strong Lucy - if we’re gonna get out of here.’ Striding forward, he crushed her hands between his own. ‘Just bear with me until we cross the border, yeah? I promise I’ll protect you; you don’t have anything to worry about.’

Words escaped her. This sensitive Natsu was too foreign - too bizarre - to cope with a sane mind, his conscientious nature something mature and a result of a life-changing event. 

Natsu insisted she rest while he finished packing. From the stack of dry clothes he extracted an outfit that was strikingly familiar; a top, jacket and detached sleeves in a palette of gold, blue and white, paired with a miniskirt, black stockings and her old brown boots. Growing steadily aware, Lucy ran her fingers through her hair, finding the locks shorter and darker. This was the way she dressed around the time of their return after 7 years and the Grand Magic Games. 

Natsu helped her dress. Some items of clothing she was able to slip up on herself with one hand, but without she required his assistance. A blossoming blush warmed her cheeks and the tips of her ears but her partner appeared unperturbed, almost as though he’d done it before. 

‘Alright, ready to go?’

Nodding, Lucy allowed him to lift her to her feet, ‘As I’ll ever be.’

While she snuffed out the sad remainder of the campfire, Natsu shouldered their pack and rolled one of the smaller rocks away from the doorway, stepping through before her to ensure it was safe to emerge. When he waved her okay, Lucy followed him out. 

Red skies declared the dawn - red possibly due to bad weather, or to the raging fires that burned along the horizon. Ash fell like snow. Each house along their street was in a similar or worse condition to theirs. Colossal boulders littered the streets like stones, some halfway in buildings and some undoubtedly wedged through rooves and floors. Smoke and rotting and burning mixed into a horrendous aroma. 

Natsu grimaced, ‘They’re closer than I thought. We’re gonna have to get a move on. Come on.’

He thrust a hand out for her to take, and when she didn’t he looked back to meet her sombre expression. It slowly dawned that he’d extended his left hand for her to take with her right. In a smooth, lighthearted recovery, he changed direction to slip his left arm around her shoulders, pulling her in tight as they began to walk down the deserted road. 

Together, they smiled. And then the first dragon passed overhead. 

 

A spotlight remained. 

Terrified of what it would show him, Natsu raised his head slowly. The field on fire had fallen into midnight black and he felt like every step he took was a stroll among the sky where stars should be, only there were none. His feet dragged, lifeless, but his body was no longer weighed down. The claws had retreated, returning to the large, tanned, calloused hands that he was used to. 

Bathed in gold, dressed in gold, made of gold; Lucy was golden. Matted blonde locks splayed like a fluid halo around her head, knotted with mud and blood, and she gazed up into the neverending darkness with honey-coloured eyes. A golden gown adorned her figure, a chaste neckline dipping along her collarbone and a silk sash wrapped above her waist. She was barefoot, silent, and laying in a growing pool of blood. 

‘Oh, oh my god. Shit, Lucy!’ he called her name as he ran. Lucy!’ 

Crismon spilled from her torso, staining the front of the beautiful dress. Despite the hideous wound that pierced beneath her clothes, the stellar mage’s face was indifferent, peaceful even. She bled out, intoxicating the air with the pungent smell of iron. Natsu couldn’t help the tears that began to form, and he couldn’t stop them from dropping from the corners of his eyes and down his cheeks. 

‘Lucy,’ he whispered, curling the back of his hand against her cheek. ‘Lucy … Lucy.’

Rocking her head to the side, a small smile glided across her face as easy as it would on any other day. Pain didn’t seem to register. Lucy didn’t seem to feel. Just by kneeling at her side, Natsu’s pants were already soaked through and wet with blood, yet Lucy didn’t react at all. 

‘You’re here.’

Natsu almost faltered, ‘Of course I’m here! Why wouldn’t I be?’

‘You weren’t-’ she swallowed a lump in her throat - possibly tears, possibly blood. ‘You weren’t there to save me. You said you would be.’

Dropping his head, shame pooled in his gut, ‘I’m sorry, Lucy. I promise I’ll help you now.’

‘You can’t.’

‘I can! Watch me! You’re not dying while I’m around. I won’t let you.’

‘So strong yet so naïve.’ Lucy laughed and a splattering of blood erupted from her lips, staining her pale cheek. ‘You think you can prevent death if you’re strong enough, but people keep dying, don’t they?’

‘Lucy, please stop.’

‘Igneel died,’ she persisted, tone as expressionless as her face. ‘The brother you never knew died. I died. And I’m dying again now.’ 

‘You’re not real,’ Natsu sobbed, clutching her body close to his chest. Crimson smeared further across his skin, tracing a path of where he held her. ‘You’re not real.’

‘Then why do you cry for me?’

The sweet metallic smell was strong and aromatic upon his dragon senses. Even under closed eyelids, there was no escape. His golden girl faded away more and more with each passing second and there was nothing he could do about it. No Wendy to heal her, no hospital to take her to. Not even a way out of this nightmare. Lucy was beyond saving and killed him to know that. 

He knew -  _he knew_ \- in his heart that this was another one of the illusions the real Lucy had warned him about, but the truth of his fears hit him hard in the heart. Her dull eyes met his and they pulled at him for an answer. 

‘Why do you cry for me, Natsu?’

He exploded, ‘Because I’m afraid of this! Of you … dying … and me not being able to do anything about it. I’ve seen you die once, I can’t see you die again. I care about you.’

Lucy smiled. 

‘I care about you, _so_ much, Lucy, Natsu ranted, ‘and I’m scared that you’ll die before I can tell you that. And I’m scared it’ll be because I failed to protect you. I think about every time you’ve been in real danger, and how I wasn’t there. What if, one day, I’m not there when you need me, and you die? I can’t see you die, Lucy.

I know what love is, even if everyone thinks I’m too stupid to understand, and I love you. You inspire me to be better, and you’re just this brilliant light in the darkness when everything is shit. And I don’t know if that's the kind of love that everyone talks about, but to me, that’s all I need. _You’re_ all I need. I’m sure that’s what love is.’

He ended his speech with teardrops catching in the corners of his mouth and his chest shuddering with each hiccup that rattled him. Lucy just continued to smile.

‘ _And if I lose you I can never say those things. I can never say I love you.’_

The uneven breaths stopped altogether. That voice didn’t come from the girl bleeding out. Natsu could feel his fingers trembling as he sat on his hindquarters and finally looked up from Lucy in his lap, only to see her standing a few feet away. 

‘Lucy?’

 

They were running until their feet could carry them no longer and then some more, and then suddenly she was alone. The town became hillsides became darkness became a room with no doors or windows. Lucy found herself locked in a concrete box, alone and dazed. And then she wasn’t alone.

‘Lucy,’ said a voice, snapping her attention to the floor. 

Natsu lay there, whipped with blood and missing pieces of flesh like they’d been dug right out of him. His usual outfit couldn’t be seen for the mass of crimson and brown that was painted on. Shivering coals lacked the warmth and courage that Lucy always looked for when she sought out his eyes, whether in the guildhall or in a battle. The fire boy was out of flames. 

The blood stuck to her hands as she crumpled to her knees and picked his head up with trembling hands, maneuvering him to rest upon her lap where she began to stroke back his hair. 

‘What-what did you do this time, silly dragon?’ she cried.

Natsu smiled as he always did, drawing light and bliss into the room, ‘I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.’

Lucy could’ve slapped him, ‘I never cared about that! I never wanted to see you die for me.’

‘I’m sorry you have to.’ A more serious tone edged his words. ‘I’m dying, Lucy.’

‘You’re not,’ she insisted futilely. 

Smile falling, replaced with a stern scowl that conveyed heart and care. Even on his deathbed, he was more concerned with her than himself and, oh, how she hated him for that. The damn dragon was stupidly loyal and loyally stupid, and his burning desire to protect his family - to protect _her_ \- was always going to be the death of him, and yet all of that she would give up just to let him live. 

‘Lucy,’ Natsu implored. ‘You know I’m not real. You’re too smart for that.’

Choking down tears, she shook her head as her heart took up arms against the reality she knew to be true. ‘It doesn’t matter, because I get it now. Phobos and Deimos; fear and terror. The maze shows us what we fear and there’s no way to escape that.’

‘So what do you fear?’

‘You.’ A sound across between chuckle and a sob made it out from under her tongue. She amended, ‘Losing you. You’ve meant more to me than anyone else since the day you came into my life.’

Natsu frowned, ‘Why?’

‘I never had any friends. I mean, I ran away. And then you come along, and you were nice, and a little silly, but that was okay. And then you whisk me off to my dream guild and take me on adventures and treat me like no one ever has. I was an heiress. The idea of someone climbing in through my window was _scandalous_. So I hated it, but I loved it. It was fresh and exciting.’

Sighing, memories surfaced from deep down. When Natsu had first begun infiltrating her personal space, she was astounded that that sort of thing happened outside the walls of the estate. No matter how many times she kicked up out, he crawled right back in. So she tolerated it, and somewhere along the line, she began to enjoy it. His constant company, his conversations with Happy, always bothering her but knowing where to toe the line. 

Salted beads followed the contour of her uplifted face, trailing along her jawline and dripping off chin where it landed it the touseled locks of her dragon slayer. Natsu said nothing, allowing her to continue her emotional tangent. 

‘You just continued to do the stupidest things,’ she continued. ‘Sail a tree down a river, save my life. Natsu, you cried for me. No one … no one cried for me since my mother died.’ Sniffing sharply, she beat on his marked shoulder. ‘So you can’t die, stupid!’

‘But I am dying,’ he contended. ‘And you can’t do anything about it. You never could.’

The truth stings, as they said. Bitter and cold, the reality that this illusion of Natsu would die was as certain as the reality that Lucy was often useless in the face of danger. Even now, with the aid of her capable stardress forms, Lucy’s power didn’t lie in the strength to protect or attack or defend. Lucy knew she wasn’t useless, but her power was not physical, and it was infuriating in combat. Her talent lay in the mind.

Although, if her mind couldn’t repel even the magic of the Maze of Phobos, what talent did she really have. 

Natsu eyes fluttered close, ‘What are you thinking?’ 

‘What am I thinking?’ repeated Lucy. ‘What am I thinking? … I’m thinking that this fucking sucks. I thought I knew what I was expecting in the maze, but we were separated as soon as we walked in. I thought I knew what I was getting us into … I feel like a fraud. I feel like I can never be truthful so long as I’m like this.’

‘Truthful? What’s the truth?’ 

‘That I think I love you!’ the stellar mage burst into a round of convulsions, tears flowing quicker than a river. ‘You don’t deserve me. I put you and Happy in danger just by coming to this maze. And-and to see you like this? I can’t stand it! You deserve so much happiness in life after all the shit you’ve been through. Your brother, Acnologia, the demon seed; and you beat it all. 

You’re amazing, and you still manage to get better. I feel at home whenever I see you. I couldn’t imagine a life without you by my side, but you, here, are making me think about that. And all I can see is dark and lonely and cold. You’re always by my side, and I know I can always depend on you. And if I lose you I can never say those things. I can never say I love you.’

Natsu sighed through his nose, his smile becoming simple and serene. He nodded as if he knew, and he probably did. Tears were flowing without prompting, tearing raw track down her cheeks that were becoming all too familiar. Lucy was surprised she still had tears to cry. 

 _‘You’re all I need. I’m sure that’s what love is.’_  

That was Natsu speaking. At least, not the Natsu that lay flayed in her lap. Looking up, the cement walls were gone and she was now in an abyss of blackness akin to where she greeted her mother’s image. And there he was, standing a few feet away.

‘Natsu?’

 

Their counterparts were gone. No more blood or wounds, and no more stricken grief. Shaking from head to toe, both of them, they stared in awe, wondering if what they were seeing was real. 

The answer was delivered in a rush of steps and a collision of bodies as they spun in a circle, reunited and safe in each other's arms, heavy weeping echoing off nonexistent walls. In their haste, neither noticed the beginnings of shrubbery and vines beginning to creep into formation around them. Preoccupied in comfort, wallowing in their combined presence.

Natsu murmured, ‘I was … I was so scared.’

‘You were dying,’ Lucy said in a daze. ‘There was nothing I could do.’

‘I’m here now. I’m not going anywhere. 

Pressing his lips against her forehead in a brief kiss, Natsu curled his arms so tightly around her he could touch the opposite elbows. Lucy didn’t mind. Her arms fit neatly around his waist. Hot, flushed bodies pushed into each other as close as physics would allow, and it would never be close enough. It would never be enough to overcome the horrors of the maze. 

Booming suddenly from nowhere, a deep voice rumbled its announcement: _Only those who have shed pure tears of mourning will find the Tears of Phobos. As pure as the driven snow._  

‘Phobos,’ Lucy breathed. ‘His spirit must guard the maze; this was a test.’

Natsu’s eyes flitted around, ‘And we passed?’

From in front of them, a cool blue glow began to take shape. They parted momentarily to step closer. As the hue grew brighter, a clearer form began to appear; a stretching stem the length of Lucy’s forearm and petals that drooped like teardrops, crystal in colour and transparency. When the glow faded and the object retained its shape, Lucy reached out with careful fingers to hold it. 

‘A flower!’ she giggled. ‘The Tears of Phobos are the petals of a flower.’

‘It’s beautiful,’ Natsu mumbled. ‘And really sad.’

Lucy held the diamond flower to her chest. The ripples of Phobos’ agony drove into her like a tidal wave, uncontrollable and a violent force, but also one that could be used for good. The delicate petals were cool against her touch, but only warmth found its way to her heart. 

‘So,’ she began as they started to walk, hedges forming behind them, ‘pure as the driven snow, huh?’

Natsu made a disgusted noise, ‘What is that supposed to even mean?’

Giggling again, the stellar mage felt a weight lift from her chest, and she finally felt like the nightmare was over. ‘It means to have moral integrity; to be morally uncorrupt and, well, pure.’

‘And that’s us?’

‘I guess so.’

As the maze reformed, they walked without direction. Even so, the maze knew where to take them, and following the most obvious path deposited them exactly where they entered. And waiting for them, pacing the air with rapid wingbeats, was a restless exceed.

‘Happy!’ Natsu called, waving their position. ‘We’re back!’

‘NATSU! LUSHEE!’ 

A ball of blue careened into Lucy’s chest, snuggling against her bosom, and the force of the attack nearly not her off her feet, if it weren’t for the dragon slayer’s steady arm around her waist. Holding the bawling blue ball, Lucy pet the poor kittens head. 

‘It was horrible!’ Happy cried. ‘I was in a cage, and you were laughing at me!’

Lucy frowned, ‘I’m so sorry, Happy. You know that we would never do that, right?’

Sniffling miserably, the exceed wiped his snotty nose, ‘Y-yeah. But it was so real.’

‘We saw some stuff too, buddy,’ Natsu assured his furball partner in crime, scratching in between his ears just the way he liked it. ‘Saw some real scary stuff too. But we’d never leave you, alright?’

Happy nodded, ‘A-aye.’

 

Little was known about the Maze of Deimos. It drove people mad, it incited your fears, and it wasn’t unconquerable. Being lost inside the maze was a hell that none of them wished to encounter again. But it did teach them something. 

This little family of three that deferred all opinions and all odds. It wasn’t perfect; it never was. There had fights, and there would be more, but the bonds that stretched dimensions and had proven time and time again to be more powerful than their worst enemies would always prevail. Because that was the power of love. It was loyal; it was strong; it was pure.

And by those standards, it kind of was perfect after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To those who it was unclear, their fears went as follows. Natsu: 1) Fairy Tail giving up; 2) becoming an evil demon; 3) losing Lucy. Lucy: 1) disappointing her mother; 2) the future that Future!Lucy lived through; 3) losing Natsu. Happy's fear was being treated like a freak for not being human and losing his family. Obviously, the focus is Nalu, but I wanted to add Happy in there because he is a major part of Natsu and Lucy's relationship. 
> 
> On a different note, these prompts fics are now running behind schedule (oops!) because I took too much time to go to the movies yesterday and see Spiderman: Far From Home (go see it, and stay for the TWO end credit scenes!), so thanks for keeping with me! It does still line up with the American dates, though, so I guess its alright. Anyway, leave kudos if you enjoyed!


	4. Curse

**Title** : Lie To Me  
**Prompt** : Curse (July 4th)  
**Words** : 4242  
**Synopsis** : A particularly spiteful encounter leaves Lucy with an unusual curse; every time she lies she cannot breathe for a time depending on the “severity” of the lie. Unfortunately, her successive efforts to avoid Natsu while under its effects are doomed to fail. [CU]

 

‘What a witch,’ Lucy huffed, balling her fists. ‘I swear, if Natsu hadn’t dragged me out of there I would’ve Lucy kicked her to hell and back.’

The impassioned rage session was all well and good after an unsuccessful mission if it weren’t for poor Wendy who was taking the brunt of it. Sitting sidelong on an infirmary bed while Wendy checked her over for obvious injuries gave Lucy too much time to stew, and most of the soup she was concocting was made of a snarky curse mage that had managed to escape on her watch. 

Wendy wobbled on the balls of her feet, thrown off balance by Lucy’s angry shifting, ‘Lucy, please sit still. I’m almost finished.’

Lucy sighed, ‘Sorry, Wendy. I’m just … really mad.’

The young dragon slayer flashed her a pretty smile, ‘I know; it's okay. I bet you’ll get her next time, for sure!’

Lucy let the praise set in with a grimace. As much as she was mad at the mage, she was mad at herself for failing to catch her. A simple mission it was supposed to be, and yet now she and Natsu were penniless thanks to her incompetence. 

‘There.’ Standing, Wendy declared her examination complete. ‘No physical effects that I can sense; all your organs are functioning perfectly normal. But I wouldn’t brush off that curse as nothing to worry about. It could be anything, so be alert.’

Whipping a notepad from the benchtop and a pen from her hair, Wendy scratched something down on the paper, ‘If anything changes, come and get me. But for the time being, stay off missions for a few days and get plenty of rest. Okay?’

Under the guidance of Porlyusica, Wendy was in training to become a magical physician, practising in the guild infirmary where lots of members came through every day with all sorts of afflictions and maladies, from magical poisons to a simple bruise. Wendy was always happy to help. The physician-to-be healed every broken bone and enchanted wart with a smile. 

Fortunately for Lucy, otherwise she would be stuck with a mother-hen Natsu lingering over her shoulder and worrying about the curse she’d been afflicted with. He was so carefree with his own health, yet when it came to the wellbeing of another, he was a spur of the moment expert. Surely the best thing for her would be to jump right back into the ring, not take time off to wallow in what-ifs. 

‘Okay,’ she promised. ‘I will.’

Stop. Her lungs stopped. As if she had forgotten how to inhale, Lucy suddenly couldn’t breathe. It only lasted a few seconds, but in those few seconds, she flailed around, grabbing at her throat in an urgent cry for help. Slipping off the bed, her palms slapped against the infirmary floor. A lack of air was blurring her vision, creating bleary spots of white, pale green and blue. 

‘Lucy!’ Wendy exclaimed. 

Then it came rushing back. Oxygen flooded her lungs so quickly it ached, expanding so fast her ribs felt the pressure. Lucy alternated between wheezing and choking as the room stabilised. 

Wendy knelt beside her, ‘Lucy? Lucy, are you alright?’

‘I am now,’ Lucy gasped, the rugged in and out of breath settling back into a steady rhythm. Wendy took her arm in an effort to get her back on her feet. ‘I guess that’s the curse in action.’

‘Lucy!’

Doors slammed open as footsteps stormed. Natsu was there in a flash holding her other arm and the dragon slayers supported her together as they set her back on the bed. Her sight was already piecing itself back together. The more she breathed naturally, the more the pain in her chest faded away. Large, worried eyes peered at her from over Natsu’s shoulder, the small form of Happy coming into view the longer she blinked and stared. 

‘What’s going on?’ Natsu demanded. ‘Is Lucy okay?’

‘Physically, yes-’

‘Physically?!’

‘Natsu!’ Wendy snapped, patience thinning. ‘I’m not quite sure what the curse is, but it seems to affect Lucy’s breathing.’

Happy’s bottom lip threatened to flip over, ‘Is Lushee going to be okay?’

Pursing his lips into a thin, antsy line, Natsu took the hint and quieted as he sat on the bed beside Lucy. The stellar mage knew he blamed himself for not taking the hit. As much as she could insist that it was she was became provoked and charged the mage without a plan or a thought, his mind was set in stone. The best she could do was make light of her predicament. 

Breathing in an exaggerated manner to prove a point, Lucy pat his knee, ‘I’m breathing fine now, see? I’m alright. I’ve just gotta be careful for a while.’ 

Natsu wasn’t satisfied, ‘What caused it? You’ve been fine since we got back.’

‘I’m not too sure.’ Wendy tapped her chin. ‘We were just finishing up, and then Lucy fell suddenly. It's possible that it’s on some kind of timer.’ 

Contemplating in the silence, Natsu, Lucy and Happy backed off to let the physician-in-training do what she did best. Eyes too wise for a girl too young swirled deep in thought. 

‘I’m going to ask Porlyusica about how to end a curse like this. For now, I think it’s best you don’t go anywhere alone.’ Even as Lucy opened her mouth to protest, Wendy was there with an explanation rolling off her tongue, ‘If you stop breathing for a long time, someone is going to need to be there to help you. If it _is_ on a timer, you’re going to need someone with you at all times.’

Lucy set herself up in a sulk. Despite knowing and trusting Wendy’s words, the lingering self-deprecation the mission had left on her skin was something she wanted to wash off in a hot bath before settling in to read the night away. And that wasn’t the only thing. Lucy had a hunch about this curse, and if she was right, being around other people was the last thing she needed. Wendy gave her a bright, apologetic smile before turning to her partners. 

‘Natsu, will you and Happy-’

‘Duh.’

 

Seven in the evening on a regular Tuesday had sent most guild members trudging home to rest up for another day of boozing to come. Small crowds of twos, threes and fours dwindled at dimly lit tables here and there. Lisanna lent Mirajane a hand in wiping down the bar and cleaning mugs to be used for the next day, their chiming voices dancing off the walls and around the ears of guildmates as a vibrant echo. 

At a table to the back of the hall, Lucy ignored the regaling tales Natsu was delivering to Erza and Juvia who admittedly looked like they were taking his stories with more than a grain of salt. Happy assisted with emphasis and sound effects. Shoulders up around her ears and hands stiff around her elbows, Lucy kept quiet, only nodding and smiling on cue. The girls sent her wayward looks, but those she ignored too. 

‘It was massive, hey Lucy,’ Natsu nudged her, startingly Lucy from her daydream.

‘Hmm? Oh, huge. Biggest squirrel I’ve ever seen.’

Erza wasn’t letting Lucy’s apathetic attitude quite that easily. Leaning across the table, the requip mage forced Lucy’s gaze upon hers, the stern contour of her face making her intentions clear as day. 

‘Lucy,’ she hesitated. ‘What happened today? You went in to see Wendy and you haven’t been the same since. Are you alright?’

Natsu’s animated gestures froze, fists clenching as they dropped to the table. It seemed that was all the confirmation Erza needed. Sighing through her nose, she leaned back again and exchanged a knowing but worried look with Juvia. The chatter of the hall seemed distance now, and Lucy almost wished for the stupid stories Natsu had been entertaining them with for the past two hours. 

‘I see,’ Erza folded her hands over the table and regarded them both with a domineering eye that few were known to have escaped. Natsu visibly gulped. ‘Care to explain what happened?’ 

Lucy ground her teeth together, ducking under her fierce glare, ‘I messed up and got hit by a curse. Every known and then my breathing stops, and I don’t know why.’

Again, but this time more like a hiccup. Lucy gasped as, for barely as a second, her lungs refused air entry, a magical barricade that denied access. All eyes on her, but she managed to play it off as a tickle in her throat. 

Hunch confirmed it seemed. 

‘Wendy doesn’t want her to be along.’ _Traitor_ , Lucy thought, and Natsu knew her train of thought because his eyes flicked to her, accusatorial and sharp. His nose twitched like he could smell her irritation. ‘Cause we don’t know when she’ll stop breathing.’

‘Poor Lucy,’ Juvia murmured. 

‘Indeed, that is a dangerous curse.’ Pushing back her seat, Erza stood with a ready smile and a brightness that said she had a “plan”. ‘Lucy, would it put you at ease if the girls and I stayed with you tonight? We could have a sleepover.’

 _Slam_. ‘No!’

If she hadn’t wanted attention before, she was doomed for it now. Lucy’s trembling hands flat against the table jarred Juvia’s water and Natsu’s mag of sake, liquid sloshing around in their respective containers as a testimony to her outburst. Mira and Lisanna fell into hushed silence at the bar, watching for the commotion. 

Sleepovers; gossip; truth or dare; spin the bottle; never have I ever. Situations that Lucy would normally avoid were now poison minefields just waiting for her to misstep, physical and emotional torment just around the corner from a wrong word.

‘U-uh, it’s fine, Natsu’s already insisted on staying with me.’ That was true. ‘And … I was going to show him my latest chapter.’ That was less true, and her chest protested with a skip of her breath and squeezing her lungs. 

Natsu was looking at her like a stranger, and Happy stared like she’d grown a second head. What was she doing?! Blood pulsed in her head, screaming in her ears. The nonchalant smile she was holding in place wasn’t doing a good job of maintaining a sense of normalcy. 

‘You’re allowing Natsu stay the night?’ Erza clarified.

Juvia gasped, ‘Shocking!’ 

No, that was the last thing Lucy wanted. But a white lie to preserve her confidentiality was a small price to pay, even if the consequence was _letting_ Natsu and Happy in, rather than finding them lurking about her house in the night or drooling on her pillow the next morning. At least the boys weren’t likely to bother her with questions about her most embarrassing secrets or her love life. 

Erza’s bold brown eyes narrowed, less in harshness and more concerned, ‘Are you sure, Lucy? We can invite Mira and Cana, and Levy and Lisanna if you like.’

‘I’m sure.’ The smile on her face was more forced than Happy taking a bath. 

Lucy tuned out as Erza prodded Natsu for details about the mission gone wrong. She didn’t need another rundown of how she messed up. It was shameful, to say the least, that Lucy had found herself falling victim to the mockery and aggravation of snide mage younger than her. She was the stellar mage; the thoughtful, forward-thinking one. How could she be so foolish?

Voices droned as another hour trickled by. The hands on the clock above the bar seemed to jump back a minute for every five minutes that passed. Every now and then, Lucy caught Mirajane watching her from under her lashes as though she thought it made her inconspicuous, and then Lucy would raise an eyebrow and the barmaid would realise she’d be spotted. By Lucy’s count, it stood at five times. She wondered whether Wendy had mentioned for Mira to keep an eye on her. 

‘I think I’m gonna head home,’ she announced, cutting through the conversation with a tone as sharp as one of Erza’s blades. ‘It’s been a long day.’

Natsu stood sharply, holding his hand out like he dared her not to take it, ‘Not alone you’re not. Happy?’

His fingers were as warm as ever, the natural heat of a fire dragon thrumming through his veins. Without yanking her arm from its socket, Natsu pulled Lucy to her feet and was awarded a grateful smile for his efforts. 

‘He liiiiiiiiiikes her,’ the exceed trilled. 

‘I-’ Lucy’s breath caught, and it wasn’t the curse this time.

This. This is what she was afraid of - questions she couldn’t honestly answer. Tell the truth or suffocate. If those were her only choices-

‘Lucy,’ Juvia exclaimed in disbelief. 

Suddenly Natsu’s hand burned. Lucy snapped back like fire licked at her fingertips and snaked from his palm. She tried to shut out the hurt cutting through his ever-present smile like glass, turning from the one person she did not want to be around in this situation. 

Her tone was biting, ‘I have to go.’

She left without a goodbye. Grabbing her bag by its straps and waving a distant adieu to Mirajane whose eyes were on her again (six times), Lucy pushed out the guild doors and was down the road in seconds. 

Autumn winds nipped at her ankles and neck where her skin stood out in pale contrast to her clothing palette of blues and greens. Carpets of bright orange leaves graced the grasslands of the nearby park. A teenage couple occupied the swingset and giggled in secretive voices, pushing in time with each other so they could hold hands and swing. They were young and sweet. Lucy moved past quickly before they could spot her hovering. 

Too agitated to walk on the side of the canal. Too withdrawn to summon Plue for company. Too preoccupied to hear the footsteps thumping up behind her. 

‘Lucy!’ Natsu called, huffing like he was out of breath; he shouldn’t be, his dragon stamina was incredible. ‘Wait up!’ 

‘Lushee!’

Trust them to catch up, and she did trust them. They were earnest and reliable where it counted, sometimes too much so. Running away got her nowhere, so she slowed her pace and waited for them to catch up. Natsu was frowning and Lucy prepared herself for an interrogation. 

Touching her shoulder, Natsu made careful eye contact, looking jittery, ‘Are you okay? You didn’t stop breathing, right?’

‘No, I’m ... it's fine. My breathing, that is.’ She was getting tired of this strained smile and careful wording. Back in her apartment, a hot bath cooed her name where prying eyes (she hoped) would not wander. ‘Just wanna go home.’

‘You left really quick. Erza and Juvia were worried.’

‘I’ll apologise tomorrow.’

Happy jumped from Natsu’s shoulder to hers, his telltale laugh causing anxiety to stir, ‘Is it because you liiiiiiiiiike Natsu?’

‘Watch it, cat,’ Lucy seethed. She was not in the mood.

For once, Natsu was keeping his mouth shut. His brow furrowed into thoughtful expression and his nose twitched like it did in the guildhall. His gaze roamed anywhere but her. A million things swirled in his eyes like rings of space, glittering with planets and stars and belts of comets streaming by as thoughts. This side of him was rare and something beautiful. 

Happy wasn’t done fishing for a reaction though, especially when Lucy was biting so magnificently. 

‘You do, don’t you, Lushee?’ he purred obnoxiously. 

Cheeks blazing brighter than flames, cherry red and torrid to the touch. Lucy wanted nothing more than to wring the cat's neck, but he dancing through the air on angelic wings as he continued his devilish ways. Her choice idled with rising urgency.

Say nothing and endure the torment. Deny and starve her lungs of oxygen. Agree and, well … 

‘ _Happy_ , I’m asking you nicely to stop. Now, please, _stop_.’ 

‘Lushee liiiiiiiiiikes Natsu! Lushee liiiiiiiiiikes Natsu! ‘

‘Okay, that is _it_!’ Stopping them all in her tracks, the stellar mage sucked in a deep breath of preparation. ‘I do _not_ like Natsu!’ 

Preparation was futile. The asphyxiation struck her head on and with no mercy, worse than any time before. She was standing, and then she was on the ground, dying. 

Air wouldn’t go in or out. Lucy tried to breathe but her body refused to cooperate. A box was closing in around her lungs and shrinking, squeezing them dry as they responded with spreading a blinding agony throughout her chest. Her back arched off the ground, pushing, pushing, for oxygen that wasn’t coming. Even screaming was impossible. 

Natsu and Happy were there, failing to still her thrashing body. Their voices reached her through layers of cotton. Words were distorted, ripping apart in the middle and stuttering as her head tossed about her hearing and halted her brain functions in an effort to keep her heart pumping. Winter dashed through her veins like snow sludge. The broken beat of her heart was getting slower and slower and slower until her blood was barely flowing. 

Minutes passed and Lucy couldn’t hold on. Blurred vision became infinite darkness, consciousness spilling through her grasp like sand from a broken hourglass, like the breath that she was losing. By the time she was out cold, she couldn’t hear Natsu and Happy screaming her name. 

 

It was warmer when Lucy came to. Familiar sheets rolled through her fingers, soft and comfortable against her hands and feet. Her first heaving inhalation while awake filled her lungs like a fragile, aching balloon and caused her ribs to groan in protest. Her throat was ripped and raw. But she could breathe again. 

Lucy opened her eyes and blinked her apartment ceiling into focus. 

Sound had returned to her, apparent through the muted white noise of Magnolia that existed beyond her window and the shallow breaths from a body sat beside her. Turning ever so slightly, Lucy was discouraged to meet the judgmental eyes of her dragon slayer. 

‘You lied.’

The sting of her betrayal lingered on downturned lips and in saddened eyes that drew her in like black holes, consuming her for all the guilt and honesty she possessed. Natsu was propped against her window frame, perpendicular to her position in bed. His patience and companionship perhaps disgraced her even more; his willingness to bear with her through thick and thin was undeserving of someone who lied to his face. 

Then she did a doubletake, ‘What?’

Natsu leaned forward over his crossed legs, regarding her carefully, ‘I thought about it, and every time you stopped breathing, you had just lied. That’s the curse, isn’t it.’

It wasn’t a question. Pushing up into a sitting position, chest whining in pain, Lucy still couldn’t meet his eye. How could she, when he could now identify her as such a brazen liar?

‘How could you tell?’

‘People smell different with they lie; their scent goes kinda sour,’ he explained like it was obvious. ‘And their heart speeds up.’

Lucy lowered her head, ‘Oh.’

‘So, why did you lie?’

‘Why did I … what?’

‘Lie!’ Natsu exploded. ‘If you knew what the curse was, then why didn’t you just tell the truth? You could’ve died and you still decided to lie! What was I supposed to do if you didn’t start breathing again?’

For all her masterful writing and gushing praise, Lucy found now that words had abandoned her. None seemed to fit right. He was … more concerned about the fact that she’d lied and not what she’d lied about? 

‘I-’ Honesty from now on. It wasn’t like lying would help her now anyway. ‘I wasn’t ready to say.’

Natsu shook his head, not understanding, ‘Say what?’

Did he really not know? Was he not listening or was he simply insistent on pulling it out of her? Whatever the reason, Lucy’s toes curled as her body stiffened in an unnatural posture, breath halting, heartbeat quickening. 

‘Say that I l-like you.’

Her voice was small - tiny - and she prayed he did not hear it. But his dragon ears were as fantastic as his eyes and nose, and she knew he heard when his face flushed a violent red. 

‘Like, like-like?’ he verified.

Lucy nodded, ‘Like, like-like.’

‘O-oh.’

The room shot up in temperature, the cozy sheets of her bed suddenly sweltering in two seconds flat. Steam curled off Natsu’s ears. Little beads of sweat formed along Lucy’s forehead and the bridge of her nose, but the blank-faced dragon slayer didn’t seem to notice at all. 

‘Natsu?’ She brushed against his arm, keeping her touch there even as the pads of her fingers began to sizzle. ‘Are you okay?’

‘Huh?’ Natsu swallowed. ‘Oh, yeah, I’m fine. Just … processing.’

Lucy smiled, ‘Are you gonna say anything? Like, do you like-like me too?’

The calm, relaxed expression he bore warmed her insides like a bonfire beneath her heart. Natsu was a lucky-dip of surprises, never failing to excite a package of emotions with each new wonder he brought to light. Like the boundless sky above, he was unpredictable as space. She’d seen nebulas detonate and ad-infinitum in his eyes. Maybe it was selfish but Lucy hoped that this flustered, bumbling Natsu could possibly be for her eyes alone. 

‘I’ve, uh,’ he cleared his throat. ‘I’ve like-liked you for a long time. Everyone kept telling me to go for it, but I, um,’ looking away pointedly and scratching his nose, the blush returned, ‘I wanted to know for sure before I said something. Because I didn’t want to ruin this friendship for you.’

For her, again. Everything he did, he did with her in mind. This pure, devoted boy deserved so much more than a scared girl. Even so, Lucy was far too greedy to give him up. Her fingers absently found his cheek and he didn’t fight her caress, leaning into her warm, inviting hand.

‘I’m gonna,’ she sputtered, ‘can I kiss you now?’

Natsu balked but recovered quickly, ‘Sure, but I’ve never done it before.’

‘Me either.’

Smiles were shy as their noses brushed like butterfly kisses. A mix up began of where to place hands, how to sit close together, which way to turn their heads, and in the disarray, they giggled. Love never felt so comfortable. Lucy supposed this was how it was supposed to be; easy. 

The first brush of their lips was subdued, abrupt, and they came together in a clumsy closed-mouthed kiss that they grinned into, making a mess of the whole thing. As far as first times went, it was sweet and pure. Giggling some more, they tried again, a little better. 

Lucy guided them with a tender hold on Natsu’s chin, tilting their heads to slide into something a bit braver. Levy’s romance novels did most of the work. Moving her lips in an instinctive motion, Natsu followed her lead as they began to mould together, working to become one. Heat and love whirled through the kiss. Natsu’s lips tasted of chilli powder, and Lucy couldn’t help thinking that was just so incredibly _Natsu_ that she laughed aloud. 

Pulling back, the dragon slayer beamed like they’d won the Grand Magic Games all over again. Elation lit up his eyes like burning coals. Inside a slow going fire had begun to ignite, the first flames of love becoming something real and tangible; something to have, hold and never let go. 

‘Not bad.’ Lucy casual act was extremely see-through, but Natsu pretended it was working. ‘Practice makes perfect, right?’

He winked, ‘You’re the expert.’

The sexy act wasn’t working either. Lucy ended up in fits of hysteria, clutching a pillow to her chest while Natsu smiled like a fool. For all his chiselled abs, strong jawline and toned body did for him, the stellar mage knew the loveable idiot that lay beneath his fearless facade and wasn’t duped by any of it at all. It was still adorkable that he tried. 

‘Ahem, where is Happy, by the way?’ she glanced around, only realising after the heated exchange that the exceed was nowhere to be seen. Goodness knows the kind of teasing they’d be on the wrong end of if he’d witnessed _that_. 

Natsu shrugged, making room beside him for her to cuddle up, ‘Told him to go update Wendy, but I think he got the hint because he told me not to expect him back until tomorrow. He’s staying at Fairy Hills with Wendy and Carla.’ 

‘Of course,’ Lucy laughed. 

Nothing was quite like the peaceful silence of just existing together. Lucy tucked her feet beneath her pillow, noticing that her shoes had been removed and placed by the door. Yet another touching display of attention. Finding her place in the crook of Natsu’s shoulder, she smiled and silently sent her thanks to the accidental-matchmaking curse mage. 

They would take things one step at a time, of course, as they always did. But being together had never felt so right and honest. Natsu staying the night wasn’t so much of a problem anymore. And she couldn’t lie, he did indeed take her breath away. 

‘Now what were you saying about practice?’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shorter but sweeter, with a sappy ending. I also have a passion for Natsu being beautiful. Anyway, after yesterday's long story I decided to go for something simpler to write. I was searching for interesting curses and came across this one which caught my attention with its angsty possibilities. A nice fluffy ending though to keep it light. 
> 
> A rundown of Lucy's lies. She lied to Wendy about resting, which the curse determined as pretty bad. She lied about not knowing why her breathing stopped, which the curse determined as a half-lie because she had strong suspicions. She lied about why Natsu was staying, which the curse determined as a white lie. And she lied about liking Natsu, which the curse determined as very severe because she was denying a huge part of him and herself. So that's my reasoning as to what happens. 
> 
> Stick around for more, leave a kudos if you liked, and have a nice day (happy Fourth of July to the Americans)!


End file.
